









•A «*» _\. v <*. ' . . « ,0 O 











++J 



GENERAL HISTORY 

FOR 
COLLEGES AND HIGH SCHOOLS 



BY 



PHILIP VAN NESS MYERS 

Author of "Ancient History," " Medieval and 
Modern History," etcT 



REVISED EDITION 



GINN & COMPANY 

BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Gooles Received 

MAY 24 1906 

- Copyright Entry 

cuss Ol xkc. no, 
K / 7 6 6 

COPY B. 






Entered at Stationers' Hall 



Copyright, 1889, 1906, by 
P. V. N. MYERS 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
66.4 



GINN & COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 






PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION 

I 

The first edition of this work was published seventeen years 
ago. As that was a shortened edition of the original texts of my 
"Ancient History" and "Mediaeval and Modern History," so is 
this volume a shortened edition of the revised and in great part 
rewritten texts of these two works. In the present issue the book 
contains several fresh chapters, an entirely new series of colored 
maps, many new illustrations, and carefully selected lists of books 
for further reading at the end of each chapter, together with 
suggested topics for special study. The new text brings the narra- 
tion of events down to the Peace of Portsmouth and the elections 
to the first Russian Parliament, and aims to include all the latest 
important results of discovery and scholarly research in the differ- 
ent historical fields and periods. 

P. V. N. M. 
College Hill, Ohio 
April, 1906 



The real history of the human race is the history of tendencies which 
are perceived by the mind, and not of events which are discovered by the 
senses. — Buckle. 

Historical facts should not be a burden to the memory but an illumina- 
tion of the soul. — Lord Acton. 

But history ought surely in some degree, if it is worth anything, to 
anticipate the lessons of time. We shall all no doubt be wise after the 
event ; we study history that we may be wise before, the event. — Seeley. 



CONTENTS 



Page 

List of Maps xiv 

Chapter 

I. General Introduction : Prehistoric Times ....... I 



PART I — ANCIENT HISTORY 

DIVISION I — THE EASTERN NATIONS 

II. Races and Groups of Peoples at the Dawn of History ... 9 

III. Ancient Egypt (from about 5000 to 30 B.C.) 14 

1. Political History ....*.. 14 

11. Religion, Arts, and General Culture 20 

IV. The Early City-States of Babylonia and the Old Babylonian 

Empire (from about 5000 to 1 1 B.C.) 30 

1. Political History 30 

11. Arts and General Culture 34 

V. The Assyrian and the Chaldean Empire 42 

1. The Assyrian Empire (to 606 B.C.) 42 

11. The Chaldean Empire (625-538 B.C.) 47 

VI. The Hebrews 49 

VII. The Phoenicians 54 

VIII. The Persian Empire (558-330 B.C.) 59 

1. Political History 59 

11. Government, Religion, and Arts 62 

IX. India and China . 65 

1. India . 65 

11. China 67 

DIVISION II — GREECE 

X. The Land and the People 71 

XI. Prehistoric Times according to Greek Accounts 77 

XII. The Inheritance of the Historic Greeks 84 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

XIII. The Growth of Sparta 92 

XIV. The Age of Colonization and of Tyrannies 98 

1. The Age of Colonization (about 750-600 B.C.) . 98 

• 11. The Tyrannies (about 650-500 B.C.) 102 

XV. The History of Athens up to the Persian Wars .... 105 

XVI. The Persian Wars (500-479 B.C.) . . 112 

XVII. The Athenian Supremacy 124 

1. The Makingof the Athenian Empire (479-445 B.C.) 124 

11. The Age of Pericles (445-431 B.C.) 129 

XVIII. The Peloponnesian War; the Spartan and the Theban 

Supremacy 135 

1. The Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) . . . 135 

11. The Spartan and the Theban Supremacy . . . 145 

XIX. Alexander the Great (336-323 B.C.) M9 

XX. The GrEeco-Oriental World from the Death of Alexander 

to the Conquest of Greece by the Romans (323-146 B.C.) 157 

XXI. Greek Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting . ... . . 162 

I. Architecture 162 

11. Sculpture 166 

hi. Painting 17° 

XXII. Greek Literature 172 

XXIII. Greek Philosophy and Science 180 

XXIV. Social Life of the Greeks 189 

DIVISION III — ROME 

XXV. Italy and its Early Inhabitants 195 

XXVI. Rome as a Kingdom 199 

1. Society and Government ........ 199 

II. Religion 203 

in. Rome under the Kings (753 .'-509 B.C.) .... 206 

XXVII. The Early Republic ; Plebeians become Citizens with Full 

Rights (509-367 B.C.) 210 

XXVIII. The Conquest of Italy (367-264 B.C.) 221 



CONTENTS i X 

Chapter Page 

XXIX. The Punic Wars 227 

I. The First Punic War (264-241 B.C.) .... 227 
11. Rome and Carthage between the First and the 

Second Punic War (241-218 B.C.) 232 

in. The Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.) .... 235 
IV. Events between the Second and the Third Punic 

War (201-146 B.C.) 241 

v. The Third Punic War (149-146 B.C.) .... 244 

XXX. The Last Century of the Republic (133-31 B.C.) .... 248 

XXXI. The Establishment of the Empire and the Reign of 

Augustus Caesar (31 b.c.-a.d. 14) 274 

XXXII. From Tiberius to the Accession of Diocletian (a.d. 14-284) 281 

XXXIII. Diocletian and Constantine the Great 297 

1. The Reign of Diocletian (a.d. 284-305) . . . 297 

11. Reign of Constantine the Great (a.d. 306-337) . 300 

XXXIV. The Last Century of the Empire in the West (a.d. 376-476) 305 

XXXV. Architecture, Literature, Law, and Social Life among the 

Romans 317 

1. Architecture 317 

11. Literature, Philosophy, and Law 320 

in. Social Life 325 



PART II — MEDLEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY 

XXXVI. Introduction 332 

DIVISION I— THE MIDDLE AGES 
First Period — The Dark Ages 

(From the Fall of Rome to the Eleventh Century) 

XXXVII. The Barbarian Kingdoms 336 

XXXVIII. The Church and its Institutions 341 

1. The Conversion of the Barbarians 341 

11. The Rise of Monasticism 345 

in. The Rise of the Papacy 348 

XXXIX. The Fusion of Latin and Teuton 353 

XL. The Roman Empire in the East 358 



x CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

XLI. The Rise of Islam 362 

XLII. Charlemagne and the Restoration of the Empire in the 

West 372 

XLIII. The Northmen : the Coming of the Vikings 379 

Second Period — The Age of Revival 

(From the Opening of the Eleventh Century to the Discovery of 
America by Columbus in 1492) 

XLIV. Feudalism and Chivalry 383 

1. Feudalism 383 

II. Chivalry 392 

XLV. The Norman Conquest of England 396 

XLVI. The Papacy and the Empire 401 

XLVII. The Crusades (1096-1273) 407 

XLVIII. Supremacy of the Papacy ; Decline of its Temporal 

Power 420 

XLIX. Turanian Conquests ; Mongols and Turks 426 

L. The Growth of the Towns 431 

LI. The Universities and the Schoolmen 439 

LII. Growth of the Nations : Formation of National Govern- 
ments and Literatures 444 

1. England 444 

II. France 458 

in. Spain 463 

iv. Germany 466 

v. Russia 471 

vi. Italy 471 

vii. The Northern Countries 473 

LI II. The Renaissance 475 

DIVISION II — THE MODERN AGE 
Third Period — The Era of the Reformation 

(From the Discovery of America, in 1492, to the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648) 

LIV. Geographical Discoveries and the Beginnings of Modern 

Colonization 486 

LV. The Beginnings of the Reformation 497 



CONTENTS xi 

Chapter Page 
LVI. The Ascendancy of Spain ; her Relation to the Catholic 

Reaction 5 11 

I. Reign of the Emperor Charles V (15 19-1556) . 511 

11. Spain under Philip II (1 556-1 598) 516 

LVII. The Tudors and the English Reformation (1 485-1 603) . . 520 

I. Introductory 520 

11. The Reign of Henry VII (1485-1 509) .... 522 
ill. England severed from the Papacy by Henry VIII 

(1509-1547) 523 

IV. Changes in Doctrine and Ritual under Ed- 
ward VI (1 547-1 553) 530 

V. Reaction under Mary ( 1 553-1 558) 531 

VI. Final Establishment of Protestantism under 

Elizabeth (1 558-1603) 532 

LVIII. The Revolt of the Netherlands : Rise of the Dutch Re- 
public (1 572-1609) 541 

LIX. The Huguenot Wars in France (1 562-1 629) 550 

LX. The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) 557 



Fourth Period — The Era of the Political Revolution 

(From the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, to the Twentieth Century) 

The Age of Absolute Monarchy: the Prelude to the 
Democratic Revolution (1648-1789) 

LXI. Introductory : the Doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings 

and the Maxims of the Enlightened Despots 564 

LXII. The Ascendancy of France under Louis XIV (1643-1715) . 569 

LXIII. The Stuarts and the English Revolution (1 603-1 689) . . . 579 

1. The First Two Stuarts 579 

11. The Commonwealth and the Protectorate (1649- 

1660) 589 

in. The Restored Stuarts 595 

IV. Reign of William and Mary (1689-1725) . . . 598 

LXIV. The Rise of Russia: Peter the Great (1682-1725) .... 601 

LXV. The Rise of Prussia: Frederick the Great (1740-1786) . . 609 



xii CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

LXVI. England in the Eighteenth Century 616 

I. The Reign of Queen Anne (1702-17 14) . . . 616 

11. England under the Earlier Hanoverians . . . 618 



The French Revolution and the Napoleonic 
Era (1789-18 15) 

LXVII. The French Revolution (1 789-1 799) 627 

1. Causes of the Revolution ; the States-General 

of 1789 627 

11. The National or Constituent Assembly (June 17, 

1789-Sept. 30, 1791) 635 

in. The Legislative Assembly (Oct. 1, 1791-Sept. 19, 

1792) 640 

iv. The National Convention (Sept. 20, i79;-Oct. 26, 

r 795) 6 43 

v. The Directory (Oct. 27, 1795-Nov. 9, 1799) . . 652 

LXVIII. The Consulate and the Napoleonic Empire (1799-1815) . 658 

1. The Consulate (1799-1804) 658 

11. The Napoleonic Empire ; the War of Liberation 

(1804-1815) 662 



The Restoration of 1815 and the Democratic Reaction: 
the Sequel to the Revolution (181 5-1 906) 

LXIX. The Congress of Vienna and the Holy Alliance .... 679 

LXX. France since the Second Restoration (181 5-1906) . . . 683 

LXXI. England since the Battle of Waterloo (1815-1906) ... 689 

I. Progress towards Democracy 689 

11. Extension of the Principle of Religious Equality 695 

LXXII. The Liberation and Unification of Italy 699 

LXXIII. The Making of the New German Empire 709 

LXXIV. Russia since the French Revolution 720 

I. Russia's Wars against Turkey and her Allies . 720 

II. The Emancipation of the Serfs, and the Liberal 

Movement 7 2 4 



CONTENTS xiii 

Chapter Page 

LXXV. European Expansion in the Nineteenth Century .... 726 
1. Causes and General Phases of the Expansion 

Movement 726 

11. The Expansion of England ...» 728 

in. The Expansion of France 735 

iv. The Expansion of Germany 736 

v. The Expansion of Russia 738 

vi. The Expansion of the United States .... 739 
vii. Check to European Expansion and Aggression 

in Eastern Asia 741 

LXXVI. The World State 747 



LIST OF MAPS 



COLORED MAPS 

Based in the main on Kiepert, Schrader, Droysen, Spruner-Sieglin, Poole, and 

Freeman. Many of the maps have been so modified by additions and omissions that 
as they here appear they are practically new charts. 

Page 

i. Ancient Egypt 14 

2. Assyrian Empire, about 660 B.c 42 

3. The Division of Solomon's Kingdom, about 953 B.c 50 

4. The Persian Empire under Darius I, about 500 B.c 60 

5. General Reference Map of Ancient Greece 72 

6. Greece and the Greek Colonies 98 

7. The Greek World at the Beginning of the Peloponnesian War, 

43 1 B - c *3 6 

8. Empire of Alexander the Great, about 323 B.c 152 

9. Ancient Italy before the Rise of Rome 196 

10. The Mediterranean Lands at the Beginning of the Second Punic 

War, 218 B.c 236 

11. The Roman Dominions at the End of the Mithradatic War, 64 B.C. 262 

12. The Roman Empire at its Greatest Extent (under Trajan, a.d. 

98-117) 288 

13. The Barbarian Kingdoms, about a.d. 500 336 

14. The Saracen Empire, about a.d. 750 366 

15. The Western Empire as divided at Verdun, a.d. 843 .... 376 

16. Europe and the Orient in 1096 410 

17. Angevin Dominions 444 

18. Spanish Kingdoms in 1360 464 

19. Globe de Martin Behaim, 1492, and Globe Dore vers 1528 . . 488 

20. Europe at the Accession of the Emperor Charles V, 151 9 . . . 512 

21. Europe after the Peace of Westphalia, 1648 560 

22. The Baltic Lands, about 1701 604 

23. Prussia under Frederick the Great, 1740-1786 612 

24. Central Europe in 1801 660 

25. Central Europe in 1810 670 

26. Central Europe after 1815 680 

27. Italy in 1859 7°4 

xiv 



LIST OF MAPS XV 

Facing 
Page 

28. Southeastern Europe in 1903 722 

29. The Partition of Africa 728 

30. The Far East 742 



SKETCH MAPS 

1. The World according to Homer 91 

2. Athens and her Long Walls 128 

3. The Roman Domain and the Latin Confederacy, about 450 B.C. 213 

4. The Roman Empire under Justinian 359 

5. The Empire of the Ottoman Turks, about 1464 429 



GENERAL HISTORY 

CHAPTER I 

GENERAL INTRODUCTION: PREHISTORIC TIMES 

i. The Antiquity of Man. — We do not know when man first 
appeared upon the earth. We only know that in ages long past, 
when both the. climate and the outline of the continents were 
very different from what they are at present, primitive man roamed 
over them with animals now extinct; and that, about 5000 B.C., 
when the historic curtain first rises, in some favored regions, as 
in the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates, there were nations 
and civilizations already venerable with age, and possessing arts, 
governments, and institutions that bear evidence of slow growth 
through very long periods of time. 

2 . The Prehistoric and the Historic Age. — The uncounted mil- 
lenniums which lie back of the time when man began to keep 
written records of what he thought and did and of what befell 
him, are called the Prehistoric Age. 

The comparatively few centuries of human life which are made 
known to us through written records comprise the Historic Age. 
In the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates there have been dis- 
covered written records which were made at least four or five 
thousand years before Christ ; so we say that the historic period 
began in those lands six or seven thousand years ago. In most 
other regions the historic period began at a much later date. 
Thus the truly Historic Age did not open in Greece and Italy 
until about 800 or 700 B.C. 

3. Divisions of Prehistoric Times. — The long period of prehis- 
toric times is divided into different ages, which are named from 
the material which man used in the manufacture of his weapons 
and tools. The earliest epoch is known as the Paleolithic or Old 



PREHISTORIC TIMES 



Stone Age; the following one as the Neolithic or New Stone 
Age ; and the later period as the Age of Metals. The division 
lines between these ages are not sharply drawn. In most coun- 
tries the epochs run into and overlap one another, just as in 
modern times the Age of Steam runs into and overlaps the Age 
of Electricity. 

4. The Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. — In the Old Stone Age 
man's implements were usually made of stone, and particularly of 
easily chipped flints, though sometimes bones, horns, tusks, and 
other material were used in their manufacture. These rude tools 
and weapons of Paleolithic man, found in gravel beds and in caves, 

are the very oldest 
things in existence 
shaped by human 
hands. 

The man of the 
Old Stone Age saw 
the retreating gla- 
ciers of the last great 
ice age, of which 
geology tells us. 
Among the animals, 
which lived with him 
on the continent of Europe — we know most of Paleolithic man 
there — were the mammoth, the wild horse, and the reindeer ; 
species now extinct or which are no longer found in the regions 
where primitive man hunted them. 

What we know of Paleolithic man may be summed up as 
follows : he was a hunter and fisher ; his habitation was a cave 
or a rock shelter; his implements were in the main roughly 
shaped flints ; he had no domestic animals save possibly the dog 
and the reindeer ; and he was practically ignorant of the art of 
making pottery. 

The length of the Old Stone Age no one knows ; we do not 
attempt to reckon its duration by centuries or millenniums even, 
but only by geologic epochs. But we do know that the long slow 




Fig. 1. — The Earliest Implements of 
Paleolithic Type 



THE NEOLITHIC OR NEW STONE AGE 




Fig. 2. — Engkaving of a Reindeer 1 
(Old Stone Age) 



epochs did not pass away without some progress having been 

made by primeval man, a progress prophetic of his great future. 

Before the end of the age he had learned the use of fire, as we 

know from the traces of fire found in the caves which were his 

abode, and had invented 

the bow and arrow, as is 

evidenced by arrowheads 

of flint and of bone which 

have been discovered. This 

important invention gave 

man what was to be one of 

his chief weapons in the chase and in war down to and even after 

the invention of firearms late in the historic age. 

Strange as it may seem, the man of this epoch was in his way 
an artist. The accompanying cuts (Figs. 2 and 3) are reproduc- 
tions of celebrated engravings made by Paleolithic man. 

5. The Neolithic or New Stone Age The Old Stone Age was 

followed by the New. Chipped or hammered stone implements 
still continued to be used, but what characterizes this period was 
the use of ground or polished implements. The North American 
Indians were in this stage of culture at the time of the discovery 

of the New World. 

Neolithic man in 
Europe was in many re- 
spects much advanced 
over Paleolithic man. 
He had learned to culti- 
Fig. 3. — Engraving of a Mammoth on vate the soil ; he had 
the Fragment of a Tusk 1 learned to make pottery, 

(Old Stone Age) to spinj and to weav e ; 

he had tamed various wild animals ; he built houses ; and he 
buried his dead in such a manner — with "accompanying gifts" 
(Fig. 4) — as to show that he had come to believe in a future life. 




1 These interesting art objects are from France. They represent the earliest 
artistic efforts of man of which we have knowledge. In comparison with them, the 
pictures on the oldest Egyptian monuments are modern. 



PREHISTORIC TIMES 







Fig. 4. — A Prehistoric 
Egyptian Tomb 



6. The Age of Metals. — Finally the long ages of stone passed 
into the Age of Metals. This age falls into three subdivisions, 
— the Age of Copper, the Age of Bronze, and the Age of Iron. 
Some peoples, like the African negroes, passed directly from the 
use of stone to the use of iron ; but in most of the countries 

of the Orient and of Europe the three 
metals came into use one after the other 
and in the order named. 2 

The history of metals has been de- 
clared to be the history of civilization. 
Indeed, it would be almost impossible 
to overestimate their importance to man. 
Man could do very little with stone 
implements compared with what he 
could do with metal implements. It 
was a great labor for primitive man, 
even with the aid of fire, to fell a tree 
with a stone ax and to hollow out the 
trunk for a boat. It was only as the bearer of metal implements 
and weapons that he began really to subdue the earth and to 
get dominion over nature. 

7. The Origin of the Use of Fire. ; — In this and following para- 
graphs we shall dwell briefly upon some of the special discoveries 
and achievements, several of which have already been mentioned, 
marking important steps in man's progress during the prehistoric 
ages. Prominent among these was the discovery of fire. 

As to the way in which early man came into possession of fire 
we have no knowledge. Possibly he kindled his first fire from a 
glowing lava stream or from some burning tree trunk set aflame 
by the lightning. However this may be, he had in the earliest 
times learned to produce the vital spark by means of friction. 
The fire borer is among the oldest of human inventions. 

2 The use of copper seems to have begun among the peoples of the Orient before 
5000 B.C. It is a soft metal, and tools and weapons made of it were not so greatly 
superior to the stone ones then in use as to put them out of service. But either by 
accident or through experiment it was discovered that by mixing about nine parts of 
copper with one part of tin a new metal, called bronze, much harder than either tin 



THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS 



5 



Only gradually did primeval man learn the different uses to which 
fire might be put, just as historic man has only gradually learned 
the possible uses of electricity. By some happy accident or dis- 
covery he learned that it would harden clay, and he became a 
potter ; that it would smelt ores, and he became a worker in 
metals ; and that it would aid him in a hundred other ways. 
" Fire," says Joly, " presided at the birth of nearly every art, or 
quickened its progress." The place it holds in the development 
of the family, of religion, and of the industrial arts is revealed by 
these three significant words, — " the hearth, the altar, the forge." 
No other agent has contributed more to the progress of civiliza- 
tion. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive how without fire primitive 
man could ever have emerged from the Age of Stone. 




Fig. 5. — Primitive Methods of making Fire 



8. The Domestication of Animals. — " When we visit a farm at 
the present day and observe the friendly nature of the life which 
goes on there, — the horse proudly and obediently bending his 
neck to his yoke ; the cow offering her streaming udder to the milk- 
maid ; the woolly flock going forth to the field, accompanied by their 
trusty protector, the dog, who comes fawning to his master, — this 
familiar intercourse between man and beast seems so natural that 
it is scarcely conceivable that things may once have been different. 

or copper, could be made. So greatly superior were bronze to stone implements that 
their introduction caused the use of stone for tools and weapons to be discontinued, 
and consequently the Age of Bronze constitutes a well-defined and important epoch 
in the history of culture. Bronze seems to have been used by the first kings of 
Egypt, about 4500 B.C. From the East the metal was carried into Europe. Iron 
was already in use among the Oriental peoples about 1500 B.C., and was gradually 
introduced among the European tribes. 



6 PREHISTORIC TIMES 

And yet in the picture we see only the final result of thousands 
and thousands of years of the work of civilization, the enormous 
importance of which simply escapes our notice because it is by 
everyday wonders that our amazement is least excited." 8 

The most of this work of inducing the animals of the fields 
and woods to become as it were members or dependents of the 
human family, to enter into a league of friendship with man and 
to become his helpers, was done by prehistoric man. When 
man appears in history, he appears surrounded by almost all the 
domestic animals known to us to-day. The horse was already his 
willing servant ; the dog was his faithful companion ; the sheep, 
the cow, and the goat shared his shelter with him. 

The domestication of animals had such a profound effect upon 
human life and occupation that it marks the opening of a new 
epoch in history. The hunter became a shepherd, and the hunting 
stage in culture gave place to the pastoral. 4 

9. The Domestication of Plants. — Long before the dawn of 
history those peoples who were to play great parts in early historic 
times had advanced from the pastoral to the agricultural stage of 
culture. Just as the step from the hunting to the pastoral stage 
had been taken with the aid of a few of the most social species of 
animals, so had this second upward step been taken by means of 
the domestication of a few of the innumerable species of the seed 
grasses and plants growing wild in field and wood. Wheat and 
barley, two of the most important of the cereals, were probably 
first domesticated on the plains of Babylonia and from there car- 
ried over Asia and Europe. 

The domestication of plants and the art of tilling the soil 
effected a great revolution in prehistoric society. The wandering 
life of the hunter and the herder now gave way to a settled mode 
of existence. Population thickened, villages grew into cities, great 
kingdoms were formed, and the political history of man began, as 
in the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates. 

3 Schrader, Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples (London, 1890), p. 259. 

4 It is of interest to know that most of the wild stocks whence have come our 
domestic animals are of Old- World origin. See sec. 690, n. 6. 



THE FORMATION OF LANGUAGE 7 

10. The Formation of Language. — Another great achievement 
of primitive man was the making of language, for, as Tylor observes, 
" the main work of language-making was done in the ages before 
history." Periods of time like geologic epochs must have been 
required for the formation, out of the scanty speech of the first 
men, of the rich and copious languages already upon the lips of 
the great peoples of antiquity, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the 
Greeks and Romans, when they first appear in the morning light 
of history. 

We need not dwell upon the inestimable value to man of the 
acquisition of language. Without it, so far as we can see, he must 
have remained forever in an unprogressive and savage or semi- 
savage state. 

11. The Invention of Writing. — Still another achievement of 
prehistoric man, and after the making of language perhaps his 
greatest, was the invention of writing. There are two kinds of writ- 
ing, — picture writing and phonetic or sound writing. In picture 
writing the characters are in the main rude pictures of material 
objects. This way of representing ideas seems natural to man. It 
is a form of writing still in use among some of the American Indians. 

In phonetic writing the symbols represent sounds of the human 
voice. There are three stages. In the first stage each picture or 
symbol stands for a whole word. In such a system as this there 
must of course be as many characters or signs as there are words 
in the language represented. In working out their system of 
writing the Chinese stuck fast at this point (sec. 102). 

In the second stage the symbols are used to represent syllables 
instead of words. This reduces at once the number of signs 
needed from many thousands to a few hundreds, since the words 
of any given language are formed by the combination of a com- 
paratively small number of syllables. With between four and five 
hundred symbols the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, who used 
this form of writing, were able to represent all the words of their 
respective languages (sec. 49). 

In the third stage the symbols are used to represent not syllables 
but elementary sounds of the human voice. Then the symbols 



8 PREHISTORIC TIMES 

become true letters, a complete collection of which is called an 
alphabet, and the mode of writing alphabetic. This is the system 
of writing which we employ. 

What people invented the first alphabet is unknown; but as 
early as the ninth century B.C. we find several Semitic peoples in 
possession of a true alphabet. Through the agency of traders this 
alphabet was spread east and west, and became the parent of most 
of the existing alphabets of the world (sec. 86). 

With the invention of phonetic writing and the practice of 
keeping records, with names of actors and dates of events, the 
truly historic age for man begins. 

12. The Great Bequest. — We of this twentieth century esteem 
ourselves fortunate in being the heirs of a noble heritage, the heirs 
of all the past. We are not used to thinking of the men of the 
first generation of historic times as also the heirs of a great legacy. 
But even the scanty review we have made of what was discovered 
and thought out by man during the long epochs before history 
began cannot fail to have impressed us with the fact that a vast 
bequest was made by prehistoric to historic man. 

If our hasty glance at those far-away times has done nothing 
more than this, then we shall never again regard history quite as 
may have been our wont. We shall see the story of man to be 
more wonderful than we once thought, the path which he has fol- 
lowed to be longer and more toilsome than we ever imagined. 
But our interest in the traveler will have been deepened through 
our knowing more of his origin, of his early hard and narrow life, 
and of his first painful steps in the path of civilization. 

References. — Keary, C. F., The Dawn of History. Starr, F., Some 
First Steps in Human Progress. Tylor, E. B., Anthropology, chaps, iv and 
vi, " Language " and " Writing " ; and Primitive Culture, 2 vols. Lubbock, 
J., Prehistoric Times. Mason, O. F., Woman's Share in Pritiiitive Culture. 
Joly, N., Ma?i Before Metals. Shaler, N. S., Domesticated Animals. 
Hoffmann, W. J., The Beginnings of Writing. Clodd, E., The Story of 
the Alphabet. Taylor, I., The Alphabet, z vols. Parts of this work are obso- 
lete ; the theory of the Egyptian origin of the alphabet is now discredited. 

Topics for Class Reports. — i. The relation of domesticated animals 
to man's progress in civilization. See Shaler. 2. The origin of writing. 



Part I 
ANCIENT HISTORY 

Division I — The Eastern Nations 

CHAPTER II 

RACES AND GROUPS OF PEOPLES AT THE DAWN OF 
HISTORY 

13. Subdivisions of the Historic Age. — We begin now our 
study of the historic age, — a record of about seven thousand 
years. The story of these millenniums is usually divided into 
three parts, — Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern History. Ancient 
History begins with the earliest nations of which we can gain any 
certain knowledge through written records, and extends to the fall 
of the Roman Empire in the West, a.d. 476. Mediaeval History 
embraces the period, about one thousand years in length, lying 
between the fall of Rome and the discovery of the New World 
by Columbus, a.d. 1492. Modern History commences with the 
close of the mediaeval period and extends to the present time. 1 

14. The Races of Mankind in the Historic Period. — Distinc- 
tions in bodily characteristics, such as form, color, and features, 
divide the human species into three chief types or races, known 
as the Black or Ethiopian Race, the Yellow or Mongolian Race, 
and the White or Caucasian Race. 2 But we must not suppose 

1 It is thought preferable by some scholars to let the restoration of the Empire by 
Charlemagne (a.d. 800) mark the end of the period of ancient°history. Some also 
prefer to date the beginning of the modern period from the capture of Constanti- 
nople by the Turks (a.d. 1453) ; while still others speak of it in a general way as 
commencing about the close of the fifteenth century, at which time there were many 
inventions and discoveries, and a great stir in the intellectual world. 

2 Some ethnologists reckon a greater number of types or races. The classification 
given is simply a convenient and practical one (see table, p. 13). 

9 



IO 



RACES AND GROUPS OF PEOPLES 




each of these three types to be sharply marked off from the 
others ; they shade into one another by insensible gradations. 

We assume the original unity of the human race. It is probable 
that the physical and mental differences of existing races arose 
through their progenitors having been subjected to different cli- 
matic influences and to different conditions of life through long 
periods of prehistoric time. There has been no perceptible 
change in the great types during the historic age. The paintings 
upon the oldest Egyptian monuments show us that at the dawn of 
history the principal races were as dis- 
tinctly marked as now, each bearing its 
racial badge of color and physiognomy. 

15. The Black Race. — Africa south 
of the Sahara is the home of the peoples 
of the Black Race, but we find them 
on all the other continents and on 
many of the islands of the seas, whither 
they have migrated or been carried as 
slaves by the stronger races ; for since 
time immemorial they have been " hew- 
ers of wood and drawers of water " for 
their more favored brethren. 

16. The Yellow or Mongolian Race. 
— Eastern and Northern Asia is the central seat of the Mongolian 
Race. Many of the Mongolian tribes are _pastoral nomads, who 
roam over the vast Asian plains north of the great ranges of the 
Himalayas. Their leading part in history has been to harass 
peoples of settled habits. 

But the most important peoples of this type are the Japanese 
and Chinese. The latter constitute probably a fifth or more of 
the entire population of the earth. Already in times very remote 
the Chinese had developed a civilization quite advanced on vari- 
ous lines, but having reached a certain stage in culture they did 
not continue to make so marked a progress. Not until recent 
times did either the Chinese or the Japanese become a factor 
of significance in world history. 



Fig. 6. — Negro Captives 

(From the monuments of 

Thebes) 

Illustrating the permanence of 
race characteristics 



THE WHITE RACE AND ITS THREE GROUPS II 

17. The White Race and its Three Groups. — The so-called 
White Race embraces the historic nations. The chief peoples of 
this division of mankind fall into three groups, — the Hamitic, the 
Semitic, and the Aryan or Indo-European. The members form- 
ing any one of these groups must not be looked upon as neces- 
sarily kindred in blood ; the only certain bond uniting the peoples 
of each group is the bond of language. 3 

The ancient Egyptians were the chief people of the Hamitic 
branch. In the gray dawn of history we discover them already 
settled in the valley of the Nile, and there erecting great monu- 
ments so faultless in construction as to render it certain that 
those who planned them had had long training in the art of 
building. 

The Semitic family includes among its chief peoples the an- 
cient Babylonians and Assyrians, the Hebrews, the Phoenicians, 
the Aramaeans, the Arabians, and the Ethiopians. Most scholars 
regard Arabia as the original home of this family. 4 It is inter- 
esting to note that three great monotheistic religions — the 
Hebrew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan — arose among 
peoples belonging to the Semitic family. 

The Aryan-speaking peoples form the most widely dispersed 
group of the White Race. They include the ancient Greeks and 
Romans, all the peoples of modern Europe (save the Basques, 
the Finns and Lapps, the Hungarians, and the Ottoman Turks), 
together with the Persians, the Hindus, and some other Asian 
peoples. 5 After what we may call the Semitic age it is the 

3 In the case of the Semites and the Hamites, it is probable that the most of the 
peoples forming each group are in the main actually of the same stock. 

4 It is held by some, however, that the Semites at a very early time immigrated 
to Arabia from Africa, where they had lived in close relation with the Hamites. In 
successive waves they seem to have settled in the lands adjoining the Syro-Arabian 
desert, first the Babylonians and Assyrians, then apparently the Canaanitic and 
subsequently the Hebrew peoples, the Arabians and the Chaldeans, while Abyssinia 
clearly received its Semitic population from southwestern Arabia. 

5 Some scholars seek the early home of the primitive Aryan folk in Asia, others 
look for it in Europe, while still others declare the search to be wholly futile. Long 
before the dawn of history in Europe, and while they were yet in the Neolithic stage 
of culture, the clans and tribes of the hitherto undivided Aryan family began to 
separate and to spread abroad over the earth. This prehistoric Aryan expansion can 



12 RACES AND GROUPS OF PEOPLES 

Aryan-speaking peoples that have bprne the leading parts in the 
great drama of history. 

References. — Schrader, O., The Prehistoric Civilization of the Aryan 
Peoples. Ripley, W. Z., The Races of Europe. Ihering, R. von, The 
Evolution of the Aryans. Keane, A. H., Man, Past and Present. 
Deniker, J., The Races of Man. SERGI, G., The Mediterranean Race. 
All these works are for the teacher and the advanced student. Brinton, 
D. G., Races and Peoples, and Taylor, G, The Origin of the Aryans, can 
be used by younger readers. 

Topics for Class Reports. — i. Causes of physical and mental differ- 
ences between races. See Brinton. 2. The Aryans. See Taylor. 



best be made plain by the use of an historical parallel, — the Roman expansion. 
From their cradle city on the Tiber, the ancient Romans — a folk Aryan in speech 
if not in race — went out as conquerors and colonizers of the Mediterranean world. 
Wherever they went they carried their language and their civilization with them. 
Many of the peoples whom they subjected gave up their own speech, and along with 
the civilization of their conquerors adopted also their language. In this way a large 
part of the ancient world became Romanized in speech and culture. When the 
Roman Empire broke up, there arose a number of Latin-speaking nations, — among 
these, the French, Spaniards, and Portuguese. During the modern age these 
Romanized nations, through conquest and colonization, have spread their Latin 
speech and civilization over a great part of the New World. Thus it has come about 
that to-day the language of the ancient Romans, differentiated into many dialects, is 
spoken by peoples spread over the earth from Rumania in Eastern Europe to Chile 
in South America. All these peoples we call Latins, not because they are all 
descended from the ancient Romans, — in fact they belong to many different ethnic 
stocks, — but because they all speak languages derived from the old Roman speech. 
Just as we use the term Latin here, so do we use the term Aryan in connection with 
the Aryan-speaking peoples. 



CHIEF RACES AND PEOPLES 

The larger divisions (races) are based on physical characteristics, the smaller 
on language. 



j Tribes and peoples whose true home is Central and 
Southern Africa. 



Black Race 

(Ethiopian or 

Negro) 

f (i) The Chinese, Japanese, and kindred peoples of 
Yellow Race Eastern Asia ; (2) the nomads (Tartars, Mongols, 

(Mongolian or *l etc.) of Northern and Central Asia and of Eastern 



" Turanian ") 



White Race 
(Caucasian) 



Russia; (3) the Turks, the Magyars, or Hungarians, 
the Finns and Lapps, and the Basques, in Europe. 
( Egyptians 

\ Libyans (modern Berbers) 
Babylonians 



Hamites 



Semites 



Aryans, or 
Indo-Eu- - 
ropeans 



Assyrians 

Phoenicians 

Hebrews 

Aramaeans 

Arabians 

Asiatics 



Classical peoples 



Celts 



Teutons 



Hindus 

Medes 

Persians 
f Greeks 
^ Romans 

Gauls 

Britons 

Scots (Irish) 

Picts 

Germans 

English 

Scandinavians 



Slavs j Russians 

^ Poles, etc. 



The Irish, the Welsh, the Scotch Highlanders, and the Bretons of Brittany, in 
France, are the present representatives of the ancient Celts. For something concern- 
ing the formation of the modern Latin and Teutonic or Germanic nations, see Chap- 
ters XXXVII and XXXIX. 



J 3 



CHAPTER III 



ANCIENT EGYPT 

(From about 5000 to 30 B.C.) 

I. Political History 

18. Egypt and the Nile. — The Egypt of history comprises the 
Delta of the Nile and the flood plains of its lower course. These 
rich lands were formed in past geologic ages from the sediment 
brought down by the river in seasons of flood. The Delta was 
known to the ancients as Lower Egypt, while the valley proper, 
reaching from the head of the Delta to the First Cataract, a 
distance of six hundred miles, was called Upper Egypt. 

Through the same means by which Egypt was originally created 
is the land each year still renewed and fertilized ; hence the Greek 

historian Herod- 

Mb if I 

^Sllsfc. ff< "liiL otus, in a happy 

phrase, called the 
country " the gift of 
the Nile." Swollen 
by heavy tropical 
rains and the melt- 
ing snows of the mountains about its sources, the Nile begins 
to rise in its lower parts late in June, and towards the first of 
October, when the inundation has attained its greatest height, 
the country presents the appearance of a turbid sea. 

By the end of November the river has returned to its bed, leav- 
ing the fields covered with a film of rich earth. In a few weeks 
after the sowing of the grain, the entire land, so recently a flooded 
plain, is overspread with a sea of verdure, which forms a striking 
contrast to the desert sands and barren hills that rim the valley. 

19. Climate and Products. — In Lower Egypt, near the sea, the 
rainfall in the winter is abundant; but the climate of Upper 

14 




Fig. 7. 



— Plowing and Sowing 
(From a papyrus) 



THE THIRTY-ONE DYNASTIES 1 5 

Egypt is all but rainless, only a few slight showers, as a rule, fall- 
ing throughout the year. This dryness of the Egyptian air is what 
has preserved through so many thousand years, in such wonderful 
freshness of color and with such sharpness of outline, the numer- 
ous paintings and sculptures of the monuments of the country. 

The climate of Egypt is semi-tropical in character. The fruits 
of the tropics and the cereals of the temperate zone grow luxuri- 
antly. From early times the land was the granary of the East. 
To it less favored countries, when stricken by famine, — a 
calamity so common in the East in regions dependent upon the 
rainfall, — looked for food, as did the families of Israel during 
drought and failure of crops in Palestine. 

20. The Thirty-One Dynasties. — The Pharaohs, or kings, that 
reigned in Egypt from Menes till the conquest of the country 
by Alexander the Great (332 B.C.) are grouped into thirty-one 
dynasties. Thirty of these we find in the lists of Manetho, an 
Egyptian priest who lived in the third century B.C., and who 
compiled in the Greek language a chronicle of the kings of the 
country. The history of these thirty-one dynasties covers a period 
of upwards of four thousand years. 

21. Menes, and the First Three Dynasties (about 4500-3700 
B.C.). — Menes was the founder of the so-called First Dynasty. 
Tradition represents him as the builder of the great city of Mem- 
phis, near the head of the Delta. Recently there have been found 
monuments not only of this king but also of several other Pha- 
raohs of the first three dynasties. Thus slowly is the material 
for the history of these remote times being accumulated. 

22. The Fourth Dynasty: the Pyramid Kings (about 3700- 
355qB.c). — The kings of the Fourth Dynasty, who reigned at 
Memphis, are called the pyramid builders. Khufu, the Cheops 
of the Greeks, was the greatest of these rulers. He built the 
Great Pyramid, at Gizeh, — " the greatest mass of masonry that 
has ever been put together by mortal man." * 

1 This pyramid rises from a base covering thirteen acres to a height of four hun- 
dred and fifty feet. According to Herodotus, Cheops employed one hundred thou- 
sand men for twenty years in its erection. 



i6 



ANCIENT EGYPT 



A recent fortunate discovery enables us now to look upon 
the face of this Cheops (Fig. 8), one of the earliest and most 
renowned personages of the ancient world. " As far as force of 
will goes," says Professor Flinders Petrie, " the strongest charac- 
ters in history would look pliable in this presence. . . . There 

is no face quite par- 
allel to this in all the 
portraits that we 
know, — Egyptian, 
Greek, Roman, or 
modern." 

The pyramids are 
among the most ven- 
erable memorials of 
the early world that 
have been preserved 
to us. Although 
standing so far back 
in the gray dawn of 
the historic morning, 
they mark not the 
beginning but in 
some respects the 
perfection of Egyp- 
tian art. They speak 
of long periods of 
human life, of ages 
of growth and experience, lying behind the era they represent. 
It is this vast and mysterious background that impresses us even 
more than these giant forms cast up against it. 

23. The Twelfth Dynasty (about 2500-2300 B.C.). — After the 
Sixth Dynasty, Egypt for several centuries is almost lost from view. 
When finally the valley emerges from the obscurity of this period, 
the old capital, Memphis, has receded into the background and 
the city of Thebes has taken its place as the seat of the royal 
power. 




Fig. 8. 



■Khufu, Builder of the 
Great Pyramid 



THE HYKSOS OR SHEPHERD KINGS 



17 



The period of the Twelfth Dy nasty, a line of Theban .kin gs. 

is one of the brightest in Egyptian history. It has been called 
Egypt's Golden Age. One of the most notable achievements of 
the period was the improvement made by one of the kings in the 
irrigation of the Fayum from Lake Moeris (see map, p. 14), a 
lake formed by the Nile flowing into 
a depression in the desert west of 
Memphis. 

24. The Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings 
(about 1985— 1575 B.C.). — Soon after 
the bright period of the Twelfth Dy- 
nasty, Egypt again suffered a great 
eclipse. Nomadic tribes from Asia 
pressed across the eastern frontier of 
Egypt and gradually took possession 
of the inviting pasture lands of the 
Delta, and established there the em- 
pire of the Shepherd Kings. It is 
thought by some scholars that it was 
during the supremacy of the Hyksos 
that the families of Israel found a 
refuge in Lower Egypt, 
intruders, after a hard struggle, were 
expelled by the Theban kings and 
driven back into Asia. 

Various elements of the civilization which had long been 
developing independently in the Asian lands were introduced 
into Egypt by the Hyksos. Among these elements we may quite 
safely include the horse and the war chariot, since these now 
appear for the first time upon the monuments of the country. 
From this period forward the war chariot holds a place of first 
importance in the armaments of the Pharaohs. 

25. The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties (about 1 5 75— 
1253 B.C.). — It is the deeds and architectural works of the 
Pharaohs of these two celebrated dynasties that have contributed 
largely to give Egypt her great name and place in history. The most 




Fig. 9. — The "Sheikh-el- 
beled." (Gizeh Museum) 

At last these Supposed portrait statue of one of 
the overseers of the work on the 
Great Pyramid. This is one of the 
masterpieces of Egyptian sculp- 
ture 



18 ANCIENT EGYPT 

eventful and memorable period in Egyptian history, a period cov- 
ered by what is called the New Empire, 2 now opens. 

One of the greatest kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty 8 was 
_Thothmes III (about 1500-1450 B.C.). He has been called 
" the Alexander of Egyptian history." During his reign the 
empire reached its greatest expansion. In Asia Thothmes' au- 
thority extended beyond the Euphrates. 

The two most renowned rulers of the Nineteenth Dynasty 
were Seti I (about 135 6-1 347 B.C.) and Rameses II (about 1347- 
1280 B.C.). Seti was a great warrior. One of the most important 
of his campaigns was that against the Hittites {Khita in the 
inscriptions) and their allies. The Hittites were a powerful non- 
Semitic people, whose capital was Carchemish on the Euphrates, 
and whose strength and influence were now so great as to be a 
threat to Egyptian dominion in Syria. 4 

Rameses II, surnamed the Great, was the Sesostris of the Greeks. 
The chief of his wars were those against the Hittites, of whom we 
have just spoken. He evidently failed to break their power, for 
we find him at last concluding with them a celebrated treaty. In 
this treaty the chief of the Hittites is called " The Great King of 
the Khita," and is formally recognized as in every respect the 
equal of the king of Egypt. 

2 The so-called New Empire embraces the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, 
and Twenty-first dynasties. The first ten dynasties comprise the Old Empire, and 
the next seven the Middle Empire. 

3 The name of one of the sovereigns of this Eighteenth Dynasty (the " heretic 
king," Amenhotep IV, or Akhenaten, 1403-1385 B.C.) is connected with one of the 
most interesting and important discoveries ever made on Oriental ground. This 
was the discovery in 1887, at Tell-el-Amarna, on the Nile, of several hundred letters, 
written in the Babylonian language and script and comprising the correspondence, 
not only between the reigning Pharaoh and the kings of Assyria and Babylonia, but 
also between the Egyptian court and the Egyptian governors and vassal kings of 
various Syrian towns. The significance of this discovery consists in the revelation 
it makes of the deep hold that the civilization of Babylon had upon the Syrian lands 
centuries before the Hebrew invasion of Palestine. This means that the Hebrew 
development took place in an environment charged with elements of Babylonian 
culture. 

4 We know very little about this people, save that for several centuries they divided 
with Egypt and Assyria the dominion of Western Asia. They had a system of hiero- 
glyphic writing and left some inscriptions, but these have not yet been deciphered. 



THE TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY 



19 



It is the opinion of some scholars that this Rameses II was 
the oppressor of the children of Israel, the Pharaoh who " made 
their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and 
in all manner of service in the field" (Ex. i. 14), and that 
what is known as the Exodus took place in the reign of his son, 
Menephtha (about 1275 B.C.). 

26. The Twenty-Sixth Dynasty (663-525 B.C.). — We passwith- 
out comment a long period of several centuries. During the 
latter part of this time Egypt was tributary to Ethopia or to 
Assyria; but a native prince, Psammetichus by name, with the 




Fig. 10. — Brick Making in Ancient Egypt. (From Thebes) 

aid of Greek mercenaries, drove out the foreign garrisons, and 
became the founder of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (about 663 B.C.). 

The reign of this monarch marks a new era in Egyptian history. 
He reversed the policy of the past and threw open the country 
to the commerce and influences of the world. This change of 
policy, occurring at just the period when the Greeks were coming 
prominently forward to play their great part in history, was a 
most significant event. Prom this time on Greek philosophers 
are represented as becoming pupils of the Egyptian priests ; and 
without question the learning and philosophy of the old Egyptians 
exercised a profound influence upon the open, receptive mind of 
the Greek race, that was, in its turn, to become the teacher of 
the world. 

The son of Psammetichus, Necho II (610-594 B.C.), followed 
the liberal policy marked out by his father. In order to be able to 
bring together at any time his war ships either in the Red Sea or 
in the Mediterranean, he attempted to reopen an old canal uniting 



20 ANCIENT EGYPT 

the Nile and the Red Sea, which had been dug by earlier Pharaohs, 
but had now become unnavigable. Failing in this undertaking, 
he fitted out an expedition for the circumnavigation of Africa, in 
hopes of finding a natural water way connecting the two seas. 

The expedition, we have reason to believe, actually accom- 
plished the feat of sailing around the continent ; for the historian 
Herodotus, in his account of the enterprise, says that the voyagers 
upon their return reported that, when they were rounding the cape, 
the sun was on their right hand (to the north). This feature of 
the report, which led Herodotus to disbelieve it, is to us the very 
strongest evidence possible that the voyage was really performed. 

27. The Last of the Pharaohs. — Before the end of Necho's 
reign Egypt became tributary to Babylon, and a little later bowed 
beneath the Persian yoke (sec. 89). From about the middle of 
the fourth century B.C. to the present day no native prince has sat 
upon the throne of the Pharaohs. 

" The mission of Egypt among the nations was fulfilled ; it had 
lit the torch of civilization in ages inconceivably remote, and had 
passed it on to other peoples of the West." 

II. Religion, Arts, and General Culture 

28. Classes of Society. — Egyptian society was divided into 
three chief classes, 5 — priests, soldiers, and common people ; the 
last embracing shepherds, husbandmen, shopkeepers, and artisans. 

The sacerdotal order consisted of priests, prophets, scribes, 
sacred sculptors, masons, and embalmers. They enjoyed freedom 
from taxation, and met the expenses of the temple service mainly 
from the income of the sacred lands, which are said to have 
embraced one third of the soil of the country. 

The priests were extremely scrupulous in the care of their per- 
sons. They bathed twice by day and twice by night, and shaved 
the entire body every third day. Their inner clothing was linen, 
woolen garments being thought unclean ; their diet was plain and 

5 These divisions are more properly designated as classes than castes. For the 
characteristic features of the latter, as existing among the Hindus, see sec. 97. 



THE EGYPTIAN SYSTEM OF WRITING 



21 



even abstemious, in order that, as an old Greek writer explains, 
"their bodies might sit light as possible about their souls." 

Next to the priesthood in rank and honor stood the military 
order. Like the priests, the soldiers formed a landed class. To 
each soldier was given a tract of about eight acres, exempt from 
all taxes. 

29. The Egyptian System of "Writing. — Perhaps the greatest 
achievement of the ancient Egyptians was the working out of a 



& 



d 



3 Q l* 



o 



&= 



Fig. 11. — Forms of Egyptian Writing. (After Hominel) 
The top line is hieroglyphic script ; the bottom line is the same text in hieratic 

system of writing. By the opening of the fifth millennium b.c. 
they had developed a very curious and complex system, which 
was partly picture writing and partly alphabetic writing. 

Just as we have two forms of letters, one for printing and 
another for writing, so the Egyptians employed three forms of 
script : the hieroglyphic, in which the pictures and symbols were 
carefully drawn, — a form generally 
employed in monumental inscriptions ; 
the hieratic, a simplified form of the 
hieroglyphic, adapted to writing, and 
forming the greater part of the papyrus 
manuscripts ; and the demotic or en- 
chorial, a still further simplificationxrf 
the hieratic form. 

30. The Rosetta Stone and the Key 

to Egyptian Writing The key to 

the Egyptian writing was discovered by means of the Rosetta 
Stone, which was found by the French when they invaded Egypt 
in 1798. This precious relic, a heavy block of black basalt, 
is now in the British Museum. It holds an inscription in the 




Fig. 12. 



— The Rosetta 
Stone 



22 ANCIENT EGYPT 

Egyptian and the Greek language, which is written in three dif- 
ferent forms of script, — in the Egyptian hieroglyphic and de- 
motic and in Greek characters. The chief credit of deciphering 
the Egyptian script and of opening up the long-sealed libraries 
of Egyptian learning is commonly allotted to the French scholar 
Champollion. 

31. Egyptian Literature. — The literature opened up to us by 
the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphics is varied and 
instructive, revealing as it does the life and thought and scientific 

attainments of old Egypt 
at a time when the Greek 
world was yet young. 
There is the ancient Book 
of the Dead? intended for 
the use and instruction of 



0*1=11 



J[ 






Fig. n. — Two Royal Names in . , . ., ., 

•* the soul in its perilous 

Hieroglyphics 

journey to the realms of 

It was the first of these names which gave the clew . 

to the interpretation of the hieroglyphic script, the blessed in the nether 

Through a comparison of the two the values of world \ there are novels 
several symbols were definitely determined " j £ ■ 

y 3 or romances and fairy 

tales, among which are " Cinderella and the Glass Slipper," and 
a story written expressly for the amusement of the little son of 
Rameses II ; treatises on medicine, astronomy, and various other 
scientific subjects ; and books on history which fully justify the 
declaration of Egyptian priests to the Greek philosopher Solon : 

6 The chief writing material used by the ancient Egyptians was the noted papy- 
rus paper, made from a reed which grew in the marshes and along the water chan- 
nels of the Nile. From the names of this Egyptian plant, byblos and papyrus, come 
our words " Bible " and " paper." 

7 The twelve hieroglyphics used in writing these names have the following values : 

AK, JS^L, (|e, f]o, OP, I^A, <^>or^T, 

<Z>R, ^M, (|(jl,. [Is. 

With these the reader will easily decipher the names. It should be noted that the 
last two signs in the longer word are used merely to indicate that the word is a 
feminine proper name, and that for the sake of symmetry one symbol is sometimes 
placed beneath another. The upper sign should be taken first. 



THE EGYPTIAN GODS 



23 



" You Greeks are mere children, talkative and vain ; you know 
nothing at all of the past." 

32. The Egyptian Gods. — The Egyptians were polytheists, 
that is, worshipers of many gods. Their divinities were often 
grouped in triads. First in importance among these groups was 
that formed by Osiris, Isis (his wife and sister), and Horus, their 
son. The members of this triad were worshiped throughout Egypt. 

The god Set, called Typhon by the Greek writers, was the 
Satan of Egyptian mythology. While the beneficent Osiris was 
symbolized by the life-giving Nile, the malignant Typhon was 
emblemized by the terrors and barrenness of the desert. 

33. Animal Worship. — The Egyptians regarded certain ani- 
mals as emblems of the gods, and hence worshiped them. To 
kill one of these sacred 
animals was adjudged the 
greatest impiety. The 
scarab or beetle was espe- 
cially sacred, being con- 
sidered an emblem of life. 
Not only were various ani- 
mals held sacred, as being 
the emblems of certain 
deities, but some were 
thought to be real gods. 
Thus the soul of Osiris, it 
was imagined, animated the body of some bull, which might be 
known from certain spots and markings. The body of the de- 
ceased bull, or Apis, as he was called, was carefully embalmed, 
and, amid funeral ceremonies of great expense and magnificence, 
deposited in the tomb of his predecessors. 

Many explanations have been given to account for the existence 
of such a debased form of worship among so cultured a people 
as the ancient Egyptians. Probably the sacred animals in the 
later worship represent a primitive stage of the Egyptian religion. 

34. The Egyptian Doctrine of a Future Life. — Among no other 
people of antiquity did the life beyond the tomb seem so real 




Fig. 14.- 



-Mummy of a Sacred Bull 
(From a photograph) 



24 



ANCIENT EGYPT 



and hold so large a place in the thoughts of the living as among 
the Egyptians. This belief in a future life, taken in connection 
with certain ideas respecting the needs of the soul, reacted in a re- 
markable way upon the earthly life of the people of ancient Egypt. 
It was the cause and motive of many of the things they did. 

35. The Embalmment of the Body.- — The first need of the 
soul was the possession of the old body, upon the preservation of 
which the existence or at least the welfare of the soul was thought 
to depend. Hence the anxious care with which the Egyptians 
sought to preserve the body against decay by embalming it. 

In the various processes of embalming, use was made of oils, 
resins, bitumen, and various aromatic gums. The bodies of the 
wealthy were preserved by being filled with costly aromatic and 
resinous substances, and swathed in bandages of linen. To a body 
thus treated is applied the term " mummy." 

To this practice of the Egyptians of embalming their dead we 
owe it that we can look upon the actual faces of many of the 
ancient Pharaohs. Towards the close of the last century (in 1881) 

the mummies of nearly all the Pha- 
raohs of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, 
Twentieth, and Twenty-first dynas- 
ties were found in a secret rock 
chamber near Thebes. The faces 
of Seti and Rameses, both strong 
faces, are so remarkably preserved 
that, in the words of Maspero, 
" were their subjects to return to 
the earth to-day they could not fail 
to recognize their old sovereigns." 

36. The Pyramids as Sepulchers ; 
the Rock-Hewn Tombs. — The same ' 
belief which led to the embalmment 
of the body, led also to the con- 
struction of secure and magnificent tombs. Upon the temporary 
homes of the living the Egyptians bestowed little care, but upon 
the "eternal abodes" of the dead they lavished unstinted labor 




Fig. 15. — Profile of Ram- 
eses II. (From a photo- 
graph of the mummy) 



THE "DOWERY OF THE DEAD 



25 



and cost. The tombs of the official class and of the rich were 
structures of brick and stone, or chambers cut in the limestone 
cliffs that rim the Nile valley. The bodies of the earlier Pharaohs 
were hidden away in the heart of great mountains of stone, — the 
pyramids. Many of the later Pharaohs constructed for themselves 
magnificent rock-cut tombs. In the cliffs of a valley back of 
Thebes there are so many of these royal sepulchers that the 
place has been called the "Westminster Abbey of Egypt." 

37 . " The Accompanying Gifts ' ' or the ' ' Dowery of the Dead. ' ' — 
We have seen that the first need of the soul was the preservation 
of the old body. Along with the mummy there were often placed 
in the tomb a number of wood, clay, or gold portrait statuettes 
of the deceased. The lid of the coffin was also carved in the 
form of a mummy. The 
idea here was that, if 
through any accident 
the body were destroyed, 
the soul on its return to 
earth might avail itself 
of these substitutes. It 
was the effort put forth 
by the artist to make 

these portrait images and carvings lifelike that contributed to 
bring early Egyptian sculpture to such a high degree of excellence. 

The soul had need also of food and drink, and of everything 
else that the deceased had needed while on earth. Hence all 
these things were put in the tomb. But as it was only the spirit 
or double of the things thus set out which the soul could make 
use of, 8 it came to be believed that a picture or an inexpensive 
model of these objects in wood or clay would serve just as well 
as the actual objects themselves. Thus the pictures of different 
kinds of food and drink supplied the soul with " an unsubstantial 
yet satisfying repast " ; the representation of a vineyard provided 




Fig. 16. — Mummy Case with Mummy 



8 Compare the thought of the savage who breaks the bow or other weapon placed 
in the grave with the body of its former owner, in order that its spirit may be 
released. 



26 



ANCIENT EGYPT 



it with a vineyard in the Osirian land ; the picture of a boat made 
possible a pleasure sail on the celestial Nile. 

It was this belief which covered the walls of the Egyptian 
tombs with those bas-reliefs and paintings which have converted 
for us these chambers of the dead into picture galleries where the 
Egypt of the Pharaohs rises again into life before our eyes. 

38. The Judgment of the Dead and the Negative Confession. — 
Death was a great equalizer among the Egyptians ; king and 
peasant alike must appear before the dread tribunal of Osiris and 
render an account of the deeds done in the body. Here the soul 
sought justification in such declarations as these, which form what 




Fig. 17. — The Judgment of the Dead. (From a papyrus) 
Showing the weighing of the heart of the deceased in the scales of truth 

is called the Negative Confession: "I have not blasphemed"; 
" I have not stolen " ; " I have not slain any one treacherously " ; 
"I have not slandered any one or made false accusation"; "I 
have not reviled the face of my father " ; "I have not eaten my 
heart through with envy." 9 

In other declarations of the soul we find a singularly close 
approach to Christian morality, as for instance in this : " I have 
given bread to the hungry and drink to him who was athirst ; I 
have clothed the naked with garments." 



9 It will be noted that these are in substance the equivalent of six of the Ten 
Commandments of the Hebrews. 



ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE, AND MINOR ARTS 27 



The truth of what the soul thus asserted in its own behalf was 
tested by the balances of the gods. In one of the scales was 
placed the heart of the deceased ; in the other, a symbol of truth 
or righteousness. The soul stood by watching the weighing. If 
the heart were found not light, the soul was welcomed to the 
companionship of the good Osiris. The fate of the unjustified 
seems to have been annihilation. This judgment scene in the 
nether world forms the most instructive memorial of old Egypt 
that has been preserved to us. We here learn what sort of a 
conscience the Egyptian had developed by the dawn of history; 
for the confession and the doctrine of a coming judgment date 
from the earliest period of Egyptian civilization. 

39. Architecture, Sculpture, and Minor Arts. — At a compara- 
tively early period Egyptian civilization ceased to be progressive. 
The past was taken as a model, just as it is in China to-day. So 
what is here said of the arts is, speaking broadly, as true of them 
in the third millennium before Christ, or even earlier, as at any 
later period of Egyptian history. 

In the building art the ancient Egyptians, in some respects, 
have never been surpassed. The Memphian pyramids built by the 
earlier and the Theban 
temples raised by the later 
Pharaohs have excited the 
astonishment and the ad- 
miration alike of all the 
successive generations 
that have looked upon 
them. 

In the cutting and 
shaping of enormous 

blocks of the hardest stone, the Egyptians achieved results which 
modern stonecutters can scarcely equal. " It is doubtful," says 
Rawlinson, " whether the steam-sawing of the present day could 
be trusted to produce in ten years from the quarries of Aberdeen 
a single obelisk such as those which the Pharaohs set up by 
dozens " 





Fig. 18. — A Scarab Amulet 



28 ANCIENT EGYPT 

Egyptian sculpture seems to have grown out of pictorial writ- 
ing. The figure or character, at first a mere outline drawing, was 
after a time cut into the rock surface, and next the rock was 
chiseled away so as to leave the figure in low relief. Sculpture 
was at its best in the earliest period ; that it became imitative, 
unprogressive, and rigid was due to the influence of religion, the 
artist, in the portrayal of the figures of the gods, not being allowed 
to change a single line of the sacred form. 

In many of the minor arts the Egyptians attained a surpris- 
ingly high degree of excellence. In gem cutting they showed 
wonderful skill. The sacred scarabseus (beetle) was reproduced 
with linings so delicate that it is almost certain that magnifying 
glasses were used in the work. 

40. The Sciences : Astronomy, Geometry, and Medicine. — The 
cloudless and brilliant skies of Egypt invited the inhabitants of the 
Nile valley to the study of the heavenly bodies. And another 
circumstance closely related to their very existence, the inundation 
of the Nile, following the changing cycles of the stars, could not 
but have incited them to the watching and predicting of astro- 
nomical movements. Their observations led them to discover the 
length, very nearly, of the sidereal year, which they made to 
consist of 365 days, every fourth year adding one day, making 
the number for that year 366. This was the calendar that Julius 
Csesar introduced into the Roman Empire, and which, slightly 
reformed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, has been the system 
employed by almost all the civilized world up to the present day 
(sec. 387). 

The Greeks accounted for the rise of the science of geometry 
among the Egyptians by the necessity they were under of reestab- 
lishing each year the boundaries of their fields, — the inundation 
obliterating old landmarks and divisions. The science thus forced 
upon their attention was cultivated with zeal and success. 

The Egyptian physicians relied largely on magic, for every 
ailment was supposed to be caused by a demon that must be 
expelled by means of magical rites and incantations. But they also 
used drugs of various kinds ; the characters employed by modern 



EGYPT'S CONTRIBUTION TO CIVILIZATION 29 

apothecaries to designate grains and drams are of Egyptian 
invention. 

41. Egypt's Contribution to Civilization. — Egypt, we thus see, 
made valuable gifts to civilization. From the Nile came the germs 
of much found in the later culture of the peoples of Western 
Asia, of the Greeks and Romans, and of the nations of modern 
Europe. "We are the heirs of the civilized past," says Sayce, 
" and a goodly portion of that civilized past was the creation of 
ancient Egypt." 

Selections from the Sources. — Records of the Past (New Series, ed. 
by Sayce), vol. iii, "The Precepts of Ptah-Hotep." Petrie's Egyptian Tales 
(Second Series), "Anpu and Bata." " The description of Bata is one of 
the most beautiful character drawings of the past" (Petrie). 

Secondary Works. — Maspero, G., The Dawn of Civilization, chaps, 
i-vi ; The Struggle of the Nations, chaps, i-v ; and Manual of Egyptian 
Archceology. Petrie, W. M. F., Ten Years' Digging in Egypt and A His- 
tory of Egypt, vols. i-iv. Rawlinson, G., History of Ancient Egypt, 2 vols., 
and Story of Ancient Egypt. Wiedemann, A., The Ancient Egyptian Doc- 
trine of the Immortality of the Soul. Wilkinson, J. G., Manners and Cus- 
toms of the Ancient Egyptians (ed. by Birch), 3 vols. Erman', A., Life in 
Ancient Egypt. Budge, E. A. W., Egyptian Religion and Egyptian Ideas 
of the Future Life. Breasted, J. H., A History of Egypt. Perrot, G, 
and Chipiez, C, History of Art in Ancient Egypt, 2 vols. 

Topics for Class Reports. — I. The Book of the Dead. There is a 
translation by Budge and another by Davis. 2. The ancient water system. 
3. The nature of the government. 4. The myth of Osiris. 




Fig. 19. — Phil^e, "the Pearl of Egypt" 



JKpp ^fe 




Fig. 20. — The Babil Mound at Babylon as it appeared in 181 i 



CHAPTER IV 

THE EARLY CITY-STATES OF BABYLONIA AND THE OLD 
BABYLONIAN EMPIRE 

(From about 5000 to 1100 B.C.) 

I. Political History 

42. The Tigris and Euphrates Valley; the Upper and the Lower 
Country. — We must now trace the upspringing of civilization in 
Babylonia, " the Asian Egypt." As in the case of Egypt, so in 
that of the Tigris and Euphrates valley, 1 the physical features of 
the country had a great influence upon the history of its peoples. 
Differences in geological structure divide this region into an 
upper and a lower district ; and this twofold physical division is 
reflected, as we shall see, throughout its political history. 

The northern part of the valley, the portion that comprised 
ancient Assyria, consists of undulating plains, broken in places 
by mountain ridges. This region nourished a hardy and warlike 
race, and became the seat of a great military empire. 

1 See map, p. 42. The ancient Greeks gave to the land embraced by the Tigris 
and the Euphrates the name of Mesopotamia, which means " the land between 
the rivers," 

3° 



THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES VALLEY 



31 



The southern part of the valley, the part known as Babylonia 
or Chaldea, is, like the Delta region of Egypt, an alluvial deposit. 
The making of new land by the rivers has gone on steadily during 
historic times. The ruins of one of the ancient seaports of the 
country (Eridu) lie over a hundred miles inland from the present 
head of the Persian Gulf. In ancient times the land was protected 
against the river floods, and watered in seasons of drought, by a 





Fig. 21. 



Ancient Babylonian Canal 



stupendous system of dikes and canals, which at the present day, 
in a ruined and sand-choked condition, cover like a network the 
face of the country. 

The productions of Babylonia are very like those of the Nile 
valley. The luxuriant growth of grain upon these river flats 
excited the wonder of the Greek travelers who visited the East. 
Herodotus will not . tell the whole truth for fear his veracity 
may be doubted. It is not strange that tradition should have 
located here Paradise,. that primeval garden "out of the ground 
of which God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight 
and good for food." This favored plain in a remote period 
of antiquity became the seat of an agricultural, industrial, and 



3-2 THE EARLY CITY-STATES OF BABYLONIA 

commercial population among which the arts of civilized life 
found probably their very earliest development, r 

43. The Babylonians a Mixed People. — The original inhab- 
itants of Babylonia are thought by the majority of Assyrian 
scholars to have belonged to a non-Semitic race, and are gener- 
ally known as Sumerians, from Sumer, the name of one of the 
ancient divisions of the country. These people are believed to 
have laid the basis of civilization in the Euphrates valley. 

At a very early time there seem to have come into the country 
from Arabia immigrants of Semitic race. These foreigners were 
nomadic in habits, and much less cultured than the Sumerians. 
Gradually they adopted the arts of the people among whom they 
had settled, retaining, however, their own speech, which in the 
course of time superseded that of the original inhabitants. The 
union of the two races formed the Babylonians of history. 

44. The Age of City-States (about 5000-2250 b.c.) ; Sargon I 
(about 3800 B.C.). — When the light of history first falls upon 
the Mesopotamian lands, that is about 5000 B.C., it reveals the 
lower river plain filled with city-states like those which we find 
later in Greece and in Italy. Each city had its patron god and 
was ruled by a king. From the old Babylonian libraries (sec. 50) 
patient scholars are gradually reading the wonderful story of 
these ancient cities, probably the oldest built by man. The polit- 
ical side of their history may, for our present purpose, be sum- 
marized by saying that for a period of almost three millenniums 
these records, as far as they have become known to us, are annals 
of wars waged for supremacy by one city and its gods against 
other cities and their gods. 

Of all the kings whose names have already been recovered 
from the monuments we shall here speak only of Sargon I, a 
Semitic king of Agade, whose reign forms a great landmark in 
early Babylonian history. An inscription makes this king to have 
reigned as early as 3800 B.C. He built up a powerful state in 
Babylonia and extended his rule to the Mediterranean. 

Yet not as a warrior but as a patron of letters is Sargon 
destined to a sure place in history. He caused to be collected 



THE RISE OF BABYLON 



33 




Fig. 22. — Impression of a Seal of Sar- 
gon I. (Date about 3800 B.C.) 

" Must be ranked among the masterpieces of Oriental 
engraving" (Maspero) 



and edited the literature of the early period, and deposited the 
books in great libraries, which he established or enlarged, — the 
oldest and most valuable libraries of the ancient world. 

45. The Rise of Babylon : Hammurabi founds the Old Babylo- 
nian Empire (about 2250 B.C.). — From the remotest times the city- 
states of Babylonia had for enemies the kings of Elam, a country 
bordering Babylonia 
on the east, and of 
which Susa was the 
capital. For centu- 
ries at a time the 
Elamite kings held 
the cities of the plain 
in a state of more or 
less complete vas- 
salage. Their do- 
minion was finally 
broken by a king of Babylon, a city which had been gradually 
rising into prominence, and which was to give to the whole 
country the name by which it is best known — Babylonia. The 
name of this king was Hammurabi (about 2250 B.C.). He united 
under his rule all the cities of Babylonia, and became the true 
founder of what is known as the Old Babylonian Empire. 

Hammurabi has been called the Babylonian Moses, for the 
reason that he promulgated a code of laws which in some respects 
is remarkably like the Mosaic code of the Hebrews (sec. 56). 

46. The Old Babylonian Empire eclipsed by the Rising Assyrian 
Empire. — For more than fifteen hundred years after Hammu- 
rabi, Babylon continued to be the political and commercial center 
of an empire of changing dynasties and shifting frontiers. Mean- 
while a Semitic power had been slowly developing in the North. 
This was the Assyrian Empire, the later heart and center of which 
was the great city of Nineveh. For a long time Assyria was prac- 
tically a province of the lower kingdom ; but in 728 B.C. Babylonia 
was conquered by an Assyrian king and passed under Assyrian 
control. 



34 THE EARLY CITY-STATES OF BABYLONIA 

II. Arts and General Culture 

47. The Remains of the Babylonian Cities, Palaces, and Tem- 
ples. — The Babylonian plains are dotted with enormous mounds, 
often inclosed by vast ramparts of earth. These "heaps" are the 
remains of the great walled cities, the palaces, and the temples 
of the ancient Babylonians. The peculiar nature of these ruins 
arises from the character of the ancient Babylonian edifices and 
the kind of building material used in their construction. 

In the first place, in order to secure for their temples and 
palaces a firm foundation on the water-soaked land, as well as 
to lend to them a certain dignity or to render them more easily 
defended, the Babylonian kings raised their public buildings on 
enormous platforms of earth or adobe. These structures were 
often many acres in extent and were raised generally to a height 
of forty or more feet above the level of the plain. 

Upon these immense platforms were built the temples 2 of the 
gods and the palaces of the kings. The country affording neither 
timber nor stone, recourse was had to sun-dried bricks as the 
chief building material, burnt brick being used, in the main, only 
for the outer casing of the walls. The buildings were one-storied, 
with thick and heavy walls, and with roofs of huge cedar beams. 

In their decay these edifices have sunk down into great heaps 
of earth, which the storms of centuries have furrowed with deep 
ravines, giving many of them the appearance of natural ruin- 
crowned hills, for which in truth some of the earlier visitors to 
Babylonia mistook them. 

48. Excavations and Discoveries. — About the middle of the 
nineteenth century some mounds of the upper country, near and 
on the site of ancient Nineveh, were excavated, and the world 
was astonished to see rising as from the tomb the palaces of the 
great Assyrian kings (sec. 63). This was the beginning of exca- 
vations and discoveries in the Mesopotamian lands which during 

2 A peculiar architectural feature of the temple was an immense ziggnrat or 
tower, which consisted of a number of stages or platforms raised one upon another 
in the form of a great step pyramid. 



EXCAVATIONS AND DISCOVERIES 



35 



the past half century have restored the history of long-forgotten 
empires and given us a new beginning for universal history. 

Some of the most important finds in Babylonia were made during 
the closing years of the nineteenth century by the Expedition of 
the University of Pennsylvania, on the site of the ancient Nip- 
pur. The excavation here of the ruins of the great temple of Bel 
brought to light remains which prove that this city was one of the 



^ K ': '--a? Si \r-jfi- ~~: *-■'■.'■" r 




Fig. 23. — Excavation showing Pavements in a Court of the 
Temple of Bel at Nippur. (After Hilprechi) 

The lower pavement, marked " 1," was put down by Sargon I and Naram-Sin 
(about 3800 B.C.), and the upper one, marked "5," by the Assyrian king Asshur- 
bani-pal (66S-626? B.C.). The pavements are thus separated by a period of 
over 3000 years 

religious centers of the old Babylonian world for more than four 
thousand years, — a period more than twice as long as that during 
which Rome has been the religious center of Catholic Christendom. 
One of the most valuable things unearthed at Nippur was the 
temple library. But to appreciate the import of this a word is 
here necessary concerning the Babylonian system of writing and 
its decipherment. 



36 



THE EARLY CITY-STATES OF BABYLONIA 



49. Cuneiform Writing. — From the earliest period known to 
us, the Babylonians were in possession of a system of phonetic 
writing. To this system the term cuneiform (from aniens, a 

tW<M *TBMff MTTtV-EiT W 
-Hf £* EU -E^n* I e=TTTe= v 

-Til *r 

Fig. 24. — Cuneiform Writing 
Translation : " Five thousand mighty cedars I spread for its roof " 

wedge) has been given on account of its wedge-shaped char- 
acters. The signs assumed this peculiar form from being impressed 
upon soft clay tablets with a triangular writing instrument. 



MEANING 


OUTLINE 
CHARACTER, 
B. C. 4500 


ARCHAIC 
CUNEIFORM, 
B. C. 2500 


ASSYRIAN, 
B. C. 700 


UTE 

BABYLONIAN, 

B. C. 500 


1. 


The sun 





& 


4T 


*r 


2. 


God, heaven 


*- 


►*- 


»f- 


Hf- 


3- 


Mountain 


^< 


i< 


* 


3< 


4- 


Man 


/WTK 


J^fe^ 


► »>» 

Krrr 

r F 1 1 


^ 




5- 


Ox 


=t> 


3> 


tf* 


^ 


6. 


Fish 


<h 


4 


ff< 


T.K 



Fig. 25. — Table showing the Development of the 
Cuneiform Writing. (After Xing) 

This system of writing had been developed out of an earlier 
system of picture writing, as is plainly shown by a comparison of 
the earlier with the later forms of the characters (Fig. 25). The 






BOOKS AND LIBRARIES 37 

Babylonians never developed the system beyond the syllabic stage 
(sec. 11). They employed a syllabary of between four and five 
hundred signs. 3 

This mode of writing was in use among the peoples of Western 
Asia from about 5000 B.C. down to the first century preceding 
our era. For the first four thousand years and more of this 
period it was just such an important factor in the civilization of 
the Semitic world as the Phoenician alphabet (sec. 86) during 
the last three thousand years has been in the civilization of the 
Aryan world. It was the chief corner stone of Semitic culture. 

50. Books and Libraries. — The writing material of the Baby- 
lonians was usually clay tablets, averaging perhaps six inches 
in length, three in width, and one in thickness. Those holding 
records of special importance, after having been once written 
upon and baked, were covered with a thin 
coating of clay, and then the matter was 
written in duplicate and the tablets again 
baked. If the outer writing were defaced 
by accident or altered by design, the re- Fig. 26. — Contract 
moval of the outer coating would at once Tablet 

show the true text. The outer case has been 

rpi , 11 , £ 11 j • broken to show the inner 

I he tablets were carefully preserved in 

J r version 

great public libraries. There was one or 

more of these collections in each of the chief cities of Babylonia. 
The temple library found at Nippur contained over thirty thou- 
sand tablets. 

51. Decipherment of the Cuneiform Writing; Contents of the 
Libraries. — Just as the key to the Egyptian writing was found by 
means of bilingual inscriptions, so was the key to the cuneiform 
script discovered by means of trilingual inscriptions, among which 
was a very famous one cut by a Persian king on the so-called 
Behistun Rock (sec. 90). Credit for the decipherment of the 
difficult writing is divided among several scholars. 4 We will say 

3 The Persians at a much later time borrowed the system and developed it into 
a purely alphabetic one. Their alphabet consisted of thirty-six characters. 

4 Among these, Grotefend and Sir Henry Rawlinson. 




38 THE EARLY CITY-STATES OF BABYLONIA 

, /ust a word of what the tablets reveal respecting the religion and 
\ / mythology of the Babylonians, and of the state of the sciences 
\ / among them. 

52. The Religion. — At the earliest period made known to us 
by the native records, we find the pantheon to embrace many 
local deities (the patron gods of the different cities) and nature 
gods ; but at no period do we find a Supreme God. The most 
prominent feature from first to last of the popular religion was the 
belief in spirits, particularly in wicked spirits, and the practice of 
magic rites and incantations to avert the malign influence of these 
demons. A second important feature of the religion was what is 
known as astrology, or the foretelling of events by the aspect of 

- the stars. This side of the religious system was most elaborately 
and ingeniously developed until the fame of the Chaldean astrol- 
ogers was spread throughout the ancient world. 

Alongside these low beliefs and superstitious practices there 
existed, however, higher and purer elements. This is best illus- 
trated by the so-called penitential psalms, dating, some of them, 
from the second millennium B.C., which breathe a spirit like that 
which pervades the penitential psalms of the Old Testament. 5 

53. Ideas of the Future Life. — The beliefs of the Babylonians 
respecting the other world were in strange contrast to those of the 
Egyptians. In truth they gave but little thought to the after life ; 
and it is no wonder that they did not like to keep the subject in 
mind, for they imagined the life after death to be most sad and 
doleful. The abode of the dead (Arallu), the "dark land," the 
"land of no return," was a dusky region beneath the earth. Bats 
flitted about in the dim light ; dust was upon the lintels of the 
barred doors ; the souls drowsed in their places ; their food was 
dust and mud. 

6 Here are a few lines of such a psalm: 

O my god who art angry with me, accept my prayer. 

May my sins be forgiven, my transgressions be wiped out. 



[May] flowing waters of the stream wash me clean. 
Let me be pure like the sheen of gold. 

Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 323. 



THE CREATION EPIC 39 

There was no judgment of the dead as among the Egyptians. 
There was no distinction, in the case of the great multitude, 6 
between the good and the bad ; the same lot awaited all who went 
down to death. What makes this Babylonian conception of the 
nether world of great historical interest and importance is that it 
was adopted by the ancient Hebrews and exercised a most potent 
influence upon their religious life and thought (sec. 81). 

54. The Creation Epic, or the Babylonian Genesis. — In what 
is called the Creation Epic, which has been recovered in a frag- 
mentary state from the tablets, we have the Babylonian version of 
the creation of the heavens and the earth by the great god Marduk. 

This account of the creation has been an important factor in 
religious world history. In its earlier form it constituted a part of 
the inheritance from Babylonia of the ancient Hebrews. In the 
hands of Hebrew teachers the epic was remolded in such a way 
as to render it a means of moral and religious instruction, and thus 
was made the starting point of Hebrew religious literature, a liter- 
ature which was destined to become an important part of the 
heritage of the younger Aryan nations of the West. 

55. The Epic of Gilgamesh. — What is known as the Epic of 
Gilgamesh, 7 the Babylonian Heracles, is doubtless the oldest epic 
of the race. It held some such place in Babylonian literature and 
art as the cycle of myths and legends making up the epic of the 
Trojan War held in the literature and art of the Greeks. Echoes 
of it reached the ^Egean lands and helped to mold the Greek 
story of Heracles (sec. 117). 

56. Legislation: the Code of Hammurabi. — In 1 901-1902 the 
French excavators at Susa, in the ancient Elam, discovered a 
block of stone upon which was inscribed the code of laws set up 
by Hammurabi, king of Babylon, in the third millennium B.C. 
(sec. 45). The supreme interest which attaches to this code 
springs not alone from the circumstance that it is the oldest 



6 There was a sort of Elysium, like that of the Greeks, for men of great deeds 
and great piety. 

7 The epic is made up of a great variety of material. One of the stories of greatest 
interest is that of the Deluge, from which the Bible story of the Flood was derived. 



40 THE EARLY CITY-STATES OF BABYLONIA 

system of laws known to us, but from the further circumstance 
that without doubt it exercised a deep influence upon the later 
Hebrew code. 

The code casts a strong side light upon Babylonian life, and 
thus constitutes one of the most valuable monuments spared to 
us from the old Semitic world. It defines the rights and duties 
of husband and wife, master and slave, of merchants, gardeners, 
tenants, shepherds, — of all the classes which made up the popula- 
tion of the Babylonian Empire. As in the case of the later 
Hebrew code, the principle of retaliation determined the penalty 
for injury done another ; it was an eye for an eye, a tooth for a 
tooth, and a limb for a limb. 

The owner 'of a vicious ox which had pushed or gored a man 
was required to pay a heavy fine, provided he knew the disposition 
of the creature and had not blunted its horns (see Ex. xxi. 28-32). 

There are also provisions forbidding under severe penalties the 
harboring of runaway slaves, provisions which read strangely like 
our own fugitive slave laws of a half century ago. 

For more than two thousand years after its compilation this 
code of laws was in force in the Assyrian and Babylonian empires, 
and even after this lapse of time it was used as a text-book in the 
schools of the Mesopotamian lands. Probably no other code save 
the Mosaic or the Justinian (sec. 459) has exerted a greater in- 
fluence upon human society. " As the oldest body of laws in 
existence," says an eminent Assyrian scholar, "it marks a great 
epoch in the world's history, and must henceforth form the start- 
ing point for the systematic study of historic jurisprudence." 

57. Sciences: Astronomy, the Calendar, and "Weights and Meas- 
ures. — In astrono' he Babylonians made substantial progress. 
Their knowledge of the heavens came about both from their in- 
terest as astrologers in the stars, and from their needs as navi- 
gators of the Persian Gulf. They early divided the zodiac into 
twelve signs and named the zodiacal constellations, a memorial of 
their astronomical attainments which will remain forever inscribed 
upon the great circle of the heavens; they foretold eclipses of 
the sun and moon ; they invented the sundial to tell off the hours 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 41 

of sunlight and the water clock to measure the hours of darkness ; 
they divided the year into twelve months, the day and night into 
hours, and the hours into minutes, and devised the week of seven 
days, ending with a day of rest called Sabattu. Through Israel 
this institution of the week with a sacred rest day became the 
heritage of the later world of culture. 8 

The duodecimal system in numbers was the invention of the 
Babylonians, and it is from them that the system has come to us. 
They invented also measures of length, weight, and capacity. It 
was from them that all the peoples of antiquity derived their 
systems of weight and measure. Aside from letters, these are 
perhaps the most indispensable agents in the life of a people after 
they have risen above the lowest levels of barbarism. 

Selections from the Sources. — Harper's Assyrian and Babylonian Lit- 
erature (selected translations), pp. 408-413, " Ishtar's Descent to Hades." 
This is one of the choicest pieces of Babylonian literature. Sayce's Early 
Israel and the Surrounding Nations, pp. 3 13-3 1 9, " The Babylonian Account 
of the Deluge." The Code of Hammurabi, in either the Johns or the 
Harper translation. " The Code of Hammurabi is one of the most impor- 
tant monuments of the human race " (Johns). 

Secondary Works. — Maspero, G., The Dawn of Civilization, chaps, 
vii-ix, and The Struggle of the Nations, chap. i. Rawlinson, G., Five Great 
Monarchies, vol. i (first part). Rogers, R. W., History of Babylonia and 
Assyria, vol. i. Ragozin, Z. A., The Story of Chaldea. Hommel, F., The 
Civilization of the East. Peters, J. P., Nippur, 2 vols. Jastrow, M., The 
Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. King, L. W., Babylonian Religion and 
Mythology. Delitzsch, F., Babel and Bible. Sayce, A. H., Social Life among 
the Assyrians and Babylonians. Perrot, G., and Chipiez, C, A History 
of Art in Chaldea and Assyria, 2 vols. Schmidt, N., Outlines of a History 
of Babylonia and Assyria, with its carefully selected lists of authoritative 
works, will be of special service to the ad\%nced siudent. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Excavations ; babylonia. 2. The Baby- 
lonian libraries. 3. Babylonian magic. 4. The penitential psalms. 5. Trade 
and commerce. 

8 The borrowing by the early Christian Church of the pagan festival celebrating 
the return of the sun from the winter solstice and the transforming of it into a festival 
(Christmas) commemorating the birth of Christ, furnishes an exact parallel to the 
borrowing and spiritualizing of the Babylonian Sabbath by the ancient Hebrews. 
" Israel," in the words of Cornill, " resembles in spiritual things the fabulous King 
Midas who turned everything he touched into gold." 




Fig. 27. — An Assyrian Winged Bull 



CHAPTER V 



THE ASSYRIAN AND THE CHALDEAN EMPIRE 



I. The Assyrian Empire (to 606 b.c.) 



58. Introductory. — The story of Assyria is in the main a story 
of the Assyrian kings. To relate this story in detail would involve 
endless repetition of the royal records of military raids and cam- 
paigns in all the countries of Western Asia. We shall therefore 
speak of only two or three of those kings who have a place among 
the renowned personages of the ancient world. 

59. Sargon II (722-705 b.c). — Sargon II was a great con- 
queror. In 722 b.c. he captured Samaria and carried away the 
most influential classes of the "Ten Tribes" of Israel into cap- 
tivity (sec. 77). The greater portion of the captives were scattered 
among the towns of Media, and probably became, for the most 
part, merged with the population of that region. 

Sargon was also a famous builder. Near the foot of the Persian 
hills he founded a large city, which he named for himself ; and 
there he erected a royal residence, the site of which is now pre- 
served by the vast mounds of Khorsabad (sec. 63). 

42 



ASSHUR-BANI-PAL 43 

60. Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.). — To Sennacherib, the son of 
Sargon, we must accord the first place of renown among the 
Assyrian kings. His name, connected as it is with the history of 
Jerusalem and with the wonderful discoveries among the ruined 
palaces of Nineveh, has become as familiar as that of Nebu- 
chadnezzar in the story of Babylon. His reign was filled with 
military expeditions and marked by great building enterprises 
at Nineveh. Respecting the decoration of this capital, one of 
his inscriptions says : " I raised again all the edifices of Nineveh, 
my royal city ; I reconstructed all its old streets, and widened 
those that were* too narrow. I made the whole town a city 
shining like the sun." 

61. Asshur-bani-pal (668-626? B.C.). — This king, the Sarda- 
napalus of the Greeks, is distinguished for his magnificent patron- 
age of art and literature. During his reign Assyria enjoyed her 
Golden Age. He caused a great library to be collected at Nine- 
veh, in which was gathered whatever was of greatest value in the 
literature of the southern land. 

But Asshur-bani-pal was also a great warrior. The scenes of his 
numerous sieges and battles he caused to be sculptured on the 
walls of his palace at Nineveh. These pictured panels are now 
in the British Museum. They are a perfect Iliad in stone. 

62. The Fall of Nineveh (606 B.C.). — Saracus was the last of 
the long line of Assyrian kings. For nearly or quite six cen- 
turies the Ninevite kings had now lorded it over the East. 
There was scarcely a state in all Western Asia that during this 
time had not, in the language of the royal inscriptions, "borne 
the heavy yoke of their lordship"; scarcely a people that had not 
suffered their cruel punishments, or tasted the bitterness of en- 
forced exile. 

But Nineveh was finally taken and sacked by the Medes and 
Babylonians, and dominion passed away forever from the proud 
capital (606 B.C.). Two hundred years later, when Xenophon 
with his Ten Thousand Greeks in his memorable retreat (sec. 208) 
passed the spot, the once great city was a crumbling mass of ruins, 
of which he could not even learn the name. 



44 THE ASSYRIAN AND THE CHALDEAN EMPIRE 



63. Assyrian Excavations and Discoveries. — In Assyria there 
are many mounds like those in Babylonia. These mark the sites 
of the old Assyrian cities ; for though stone in this upper country 
is abundant, the Assyrians, being colonists from the lower country, 
continued to use in the main sun-dried bricks in the construction 
of their buildings. Stone when employed was used mainly for 
decorative purposes and for the foundation of walls. Hence in 




Fig. 28. — Restoration of a Court in Sargon's Palace at 
Khorsabad. (After Fergnsson) 

their decay the Assyrian edifices have left just such earth mounds 
as those which form the tombs of the old Babylonian cities and 
temples. 

In 1 843-1 844 M. Botta, the French consul at Mosul on the 
Tigris, excavated the mound at Khorsabad (Dur Sarrukin), and 
astonished the world with most wonderful specimens of Assyrian 
art from the palace of Sargon II. The sculptured and lettered 
slabs were removed to the Museum of the Louvre, in Paris. In 
1845-185 1 Layard disentombed the palace of Sennacherib and 
those of other kings at Nineveh and Calah, and enriched the 
British Museum with the treasures of his search. 



CRUELTY OF THE ASSYRIANS 



45 



64. The Royal Library at Nineveh. — 'Within the palace of 
Asshur-bani-pal at Nineveh was discovered what is known as the 
Roval Library, from which over twenty thousand tablets were 
taken. The library was open to the public, for an inscription says. 
" I [Asshur-bani-pal] wrote upon the tablets : I placed them in 
my palace for the instruction of my people." 

The greater part of the tablets were copies of older Babylonian 
works ; for the literature of the Assyrians, as well as their arts 
and sciences, was borrowed almost in a body from the Babylo- 
nians. All the old libraries of the lower country were ransacked 
by the agents of Asshur-bani-pal, and copies of " the old masters " 




Fig. 29. — Assyrians flaying Prisoners Alive. (From a bas-relief') 



made for the new collection at Nineveh. In this way was pre- 
served in duplicate the best part of the early Babylonian literature. 
65. Cruelty of the Assyrians. — The Assyrians have been 
called the " Romans of Asia." They were a proud, warlike, and 
cruel race. The sculptured marbles taken from the palaces exhibit 
the cruel tortures inflicted upon prisoners ; kings are being led 
before their conqueror with hooks thrust through their lips : other 
prisoners are being flayed alive ; the eyes of some are being bored 
out with the point of a spear ; and still others are having their 
tongues torn out. One royal inscription, which is a fair specimen 
of many others, runs as follows : "Their men, young and old, I 
took prisoners. Of some I cut off the feet and hands ; of others 
I cut off the noses, ears, and lips ; of the young men's ears I 
made a heap; of the old men's heads I built a tower. I exposed 



46 THE ASSYRIAN AND THE CHALDEAN EMPIRE 



their heads as a trophy in front of their city. The male children 
and the female children I burned in the flames." 

66. Royal Sports. — The Assyrian king gloried in being, like the 
great Nimrod, " a mighty hunter before the Lord." In his inscrip- 
tions the wild beasts he has slain are as carefully enumerated as 
the cities he has captured. The monuments are covered with 
sculptures that represent the king engaged in the favorite royal 
sport. We see him slaying lions, bulls, and boars, as well as less 




Fig. 30. — Lion Hunt. (From Nineveh) 

dangerous animals of the chase, with which the uncultivated tracts 
of the country appear to have abounded. 

67. Services rendered Civilization by Assyria. — Assyria did a 
work like that done by Rome at a later time. Just as Rome 
welded all the peoples of the Mediterranean world into a great 
empire, and then throughout her vast domains scattered the seeds 
of the civilization which she had borrowed from vanquished 
Greece, so did Assyria weld into a great empire the innumerable 
petty warring states and tribes of Western Asia, and then through- 
out her extended dominions spread the civilization which she had 
borrowed in a body from the conquered Babylonians. 

In thus spreading abroad the best civilization of the Semitic 
world, Assyria caused it to come into contact with the as yet 
undeveloped culture of the Aryan-Greek world of the West. In 
this way the civilization of Greece and, through her, the civilization 
of all the Western world was greatly enriched by gifts from the 
early culture of the Mesopotamian lands. 



NEBUCHADNEZZAR II 47 

II. The Chaldean Empire (625-538 B.C.) 

68. Babylon becomes again a Great Power. — Nabopolassar 
(625-605 B.C.) was the founder of what is known as the Chaldean 
or New Babylonian Empire. At first a vassal king, when troubles 
began to thicken about the Assyrian court, he revolted and became 
independent. Later he entered into an alliance with the Median 
king against his former suzerain (sec. 62 ) . Through the overthrow 
of Nineveh and the break-up of the Assyrian Empire, the Baby- 
lonian kingdom received large accessions of territory. For a short 
time thereafter Babylon filled a great place in history. 

69. Nebuchadnezzar II (605-561 B.C.). — Nabopolassar was fol- 
lowed by his son Nebuchadnezzar, whose renown filled the ancient 
world. One important event of his reign was the taking of the 
rebellious city of Jerusalem (sec. 78). The temple was stripped of 
its sacred vessels of silver and gold, which were carried away to 
Babylon, and the building itself was given to the flames ; a part of 
the people were also carried away into the " Great Captivity " 
(586 B.C.). 

Nebuchadnezzar sought to rival even the Pharaohs in the exe- 
cution of immense works requiring a vast expenditure of human 
labor. Among his works were the Great Palace in the royal 
quarter of Babylon, the celebrated Hanging Gardens, 1 the quays 
along the Euphrates, and the city walls. The gardens and the 
walls were reckoned among the wonders of the ancient world. 

Especially zealous was Nebuchadnezzar in the erection and 
restoration of the shrines of the gods. " Like dear life," runs 
one of the inscriptions, " love I the building of their lodging 
places." He dwells with fondness on all the details of the work, 
and tells how he ornamented the panelings of the shrines with 
precious stones, roofed them with huge beams of cedar overlaid 

1 The Hanging Gardens were constructed by Nebuchadnezzar to please his wife 
Amytis, who, tired of the monotony of the Babylonian plains, longed for the moun- 
tain scenery of her native Media. The gardens were probably built somewhat in the 
form of the tower temples, the successive stages being covered with earth and beau- 
tified with plants and trees, so as to simulate the appearance of a mountain rising in 
cultivated terraces towards the sky. 



48 THE ASSYRIAN AND THE CHALDEAN EMPIRE 

with gold and silver, and decorated the gates with plates of 
bronze, making the sacred abodes as "bright as the stars of 
heaven." 

70. The Fall of Babylon (538 B.C.). — The glory of the New 
Babylonian Empire passed away with Nebuchadnezzar. To the 
east of the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates there had been 
growing up an Aryan kingdom, the Medo-Persian, which at the 
time now reached by us had become a great imperial power. At 
the head of this new empire was Cyrus, a strong, energetic, and 
ambitious sovereign (sec. 88). Coming into collision with the 
Babylonian king Nabonidus he defeated his army in the open 
field, and the gates of the strongly fortified capital Babylon were 
without further resistance thrown open to the Persians. 

With the fall of Babylon the scepter of dominion, borne so long 
by Semitic princes, was given into the hands of the Aryan peoples, 
who were destined from this time forward to shape the main 
course of events 2 and control the affairs of civilization. 

Selections from the Sources. — Records of the Past (New Series), vol. v, 
pp. 120-128, "The Nimrud Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III," on military 
and building operations ; and vol. iv, pp. 38-52, " Inscription on the Obe- 
lisk of Shalmaneser II," shows the cruelty of Assyrian warfare. 

Secondary Works. — Maspero, G., The Struggle of the Nations, chap, vi ; 
The Passing of the Empires, chaps, i-v ; and Life in Ancient Egypt and 
Assyria, chaps, xi-xx. Rawlinson, G., Five Great Monarchies, vol. i (last 
part). Layard, A. H., Nineveh and its Remains. Perrot, G., and Chip- 
IEZ, C, A History of Art in Chaldea and Assyria, 2 vols. Rogers, R. W., 
A History of Babylonia and Assyria, vol. ii. Ragozin, Z. A., The Story of 
Assyria. Sayce, A. H., The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, 
Part II. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Layard's excavations and discoveries. 
2. Sargon's palace at Khorsabad. 3. The relation of Assyrian civilization 
to the Babylonian. 4. The Assyrian government. 

2 For the temporary revival of Semitic power throughout the Orient by the 
Arabs, see Chapter XLI. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE HEBREWS 

71. The Patriarchal Age. — The history of the Hebrews, as 
narrated in their sacred books, begins with the departure of the 
patriarch Abraham out of " Ur of the Chaldees." The stories of 
Abraham and his nephew Lot, of Isaac and his sons Jacob and 
Esau, of the sojourn and the oppression of the descendants of 
Jacob in Egypt, of the Exodus under the leadership of the great 
legislator Moses, of the conquest of Canaan by his successor 
Joshua, — all these wonderful stories are told in the old Hebrew 
Scriptures with a charm and simplicity that have made them the 
familiar possession of childhood. 

72. The Age of the Judges (ending about 1050 B.C.). — A long 
period of anarchy and dissension followed the conquest and settle- 
ment of Canaan by the Hebrews. During this time there arose 
a line of national heroes, such as Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson, 
whose deeds of valor and daring, and the timely deliverance they 
wrought for the tribes of Israel from their foes, caused their names 
to be handed down with grateful remembrance to following ages. 
These popular leaders were called Judges because they usually 
exercised judicial functions, acting as arbiters between the differ- 
ent tribes, as well as between man and man. The last of the 
Judges was Samuel. 

73. Founding of the Hebrew Monarchy (about 1050 b.c). — 
During the period of the Judges the tribes of Israel were united 
by no central government. But the common dangers to which 
they were exposed from the attacks of the half-subdued Canaan- 
itish tribes, and the example of the nations about them, led the 
people finally to begin to think of the advantages of union and of 
kingly rule. The hitherto loose confederation was changed into 
a kingdom, and Saul of the tribe of Benjamin was made king of 
the new monarchy (about 1050 B.C.). 

49 



50 THE HEBREWS 

74. The Reign of David (about 1025-993 b.c). — Upon the 
death of Saul, David, son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, assumed 
the scepter. He consolidated the kingdom and waged wars of 
extermination against the troublesome neighboring tribes. 

David was a poet as well as a warrior. His lament over Saul 
and Jonathan (2 Sam. i. 17-27) is regarded as one of the noblest 
specimens of elegiac poetry that have come down from Hebrew 
antiquity. Such was his fame that the authorship of a large num- 
ber of hymns written in a later age was ascribed to him. 

75. The Reign of Solomon (about 993-953 b.c). — David was 
followed by his son Solomon. The son did not possess the father's 
talent for military affairs, but was a liberal patron of art, com- 
merce, and learning. He maintained a magnificent court, and 
has lived in tradition as the wisest king of the East. He erected 
at Jerusalem a splendid temple planned by his father David. 
King Hiram of Tyre, who was a close friend of the Hebrew 
monarch, aided him in this undertaking by supplying him with 
the celebrated cedar of Lebanon, and with Tyrian architects. 
The dedication ceremonies of the building were most impressive 
(1 Kings viii). Thenceforth this temple was the center of the 
Jewish worship and of the national life. 

76. The Division of the Kingdom (about 953 B.C.). — The reign 
of Solomon was brilliant, yet disastrous in the end to the Hebrew 
monarchy. In order to carry on his vast undertakings he had 
laid oppressive taxes upon his people. When Rehoboam, his 
son, succeeded to his father's place, the people entreated him to 
lighten the taxes. He refused. Straightway all the tribes, save 
Judah and Benjamin, rose in revolt, and succeeded in setting up 
to the north of Jerusalem a rival kingdom, with Jeroboam as its 
first king. This northern state, of which Samaria afterwards 
became the capital, was known as the Kingdom of Israel ; the 
southern, of which Jerusalem remained the capital, was called 
the Kingdom of Judah. 

Thus was torn in twain the empire of David and Solomon. 
United, the tribes might have offered successful resistance to the 
encroachments of the powerful and ambitious monarchs about 
them. But now the land became an easy prey to the spoiler. 



THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL 5 1 

77. The Kingdom of Israel (953?-722 B.C.). — The kingdom 
of the Ten Tribes maintained its existence for about two hundred 
years. The little state was at last overwhelmed by the Assyrian 
power. This happened 722 B.C., when Samaria, as already nar- 
rated (sec. 59), was captured by Sargon, king of Nineveh, and 
the flower of the people were carried away into captivity. The 
gaps thus made in the population of Samaria were filled with 
other subjects or captives of the Assyrian king. The descendants 
of these, mingled with the Israelites that were still left in the 
country, formed the Samaritans of the time of Christ. 

78. The Kingdom of Judah (953?-586 B.C.). — This little king- 
dom maintained an independent existence for over three cen- 
turies, but upon the extension of the power of Babylon to the 
west, Jerusalem was forced to acknowledge the suzerainty of the 
Babylonian kings. The kingdom at last shared the fate of its 
northern rival. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon ^rfrevenge for 
an uprising of the Jews, besieged and captured Jerusalem and 
carried away a large part of the people into captivity at Babylon 
(sec. 69). This event virtually ended the separate political life 
of the Hebrew race (586 B.C.). Henceforth Judea constituted 
simply a province of the empires which successively held sway 
over the regions of Western Asia, with, however, just one flicker 
of national life under the Maccabees, during a part of the two 
centuries just preceding the birth of Christ. 

It only remains to mention those succeeding events which 
belong rather to the story of the Jews as a people than as a 
nation. Upon the capture of Babylon by the Persian king Cyrus 
(sec. 70), that monarch permitted the exiles to return to Jeru- 
salem and restore their temple. Jerusalem thus became again 
the center of the old Hebrew worship, and, although shorn of 
national glory, continued to be the sacred center of the ancient 
faith till the second generation after Christ. Then, in chastise- 
ment for repeated revolts, the city was laid in ruins by the 
Romans, while vast numbers of the inhabitants were slain and 
the remnant driven into exile to different lands (sec. 405). 

79. Hebrew Literature. — The literature of the Hebrews is a 
religious one ; for literature with them was in the main merely 



52 THE HEBREWS 

a means of inculcating religious truth or awakening devotional 
feeling. This unique literature is contained in sacred books 
known as the Old or Hebrew Testament. In these ancient writ- 
ings, patriarchal traditions, histories, dramas, poems, prophecies, 
and personal narratives blend in a wonderful mosaic, which pic- 
tures with vivid and grand effect the migrations, the deliverances, 
the calamities, — all the events and religious experiences making 
up the checkered life of the people of Israel. 

Out of the Old arose the New Testament, which we should 
think of as a part of Hebrew literature; for although written in 
the Greek language and long after the close of the political life 
of the Jewish nation, still it is essentially Hebrew in thought and 
doctrine, and the supplement and crown of the Hebrew Scriptures. 

Besides the Sacred Scriptures, called collectively, by way of pre- 
eminence, the Bible (the Book), it,jemains to mention especially 
the Apocrypha, embracing a number of books that were composed 
after the decline of the prophetic spirit, and which show traces, as 
indeed do several of the later books of the Bible, of the influence 
of Persian and of Greek thought. 

Neither must we fail to mention the Talmud, a collection of 
Hebrew customs and traditions, with the comments thereupon 
of the rabbis, a work held by most Jews next in sacredness to 
the Holy Book ; the writings of Philo, an illustrious Alexandrian 
philosopher (born about 25 B.C.) ; and the Antiquities of the Jews 
and the, Jewish War by the historian Josephus (born a.d. 37). 

80. Hebrew Religion and Morality. — The ancient Hebrews 
made little or no contribution to science. They produced no 
new order of architecture. In sculpture they did nothing ; their 
religion forbade their making "graven images." Their mission 
was to work out the idea of God, and to teach men that what 
he requires of them is that they shall do justice and practice 
righteousness. 

The Hebrews at first were monolatrists, that is, worshipers of 
one god although believers in many gods. They regarded the 
gods of the other nations as real gods, but their own Yahweh 
was a jealous god and his people must not pay homage or offer 






IDEAS OF THE FUTURE LIFE 53 

sacrifice to any other. Gradually this early form of the Hebrew 
religion verged towards monotheism, that is, the doctrine that 
there is one sole God beside whom there is no other. At the same 
time there came into the loftier souls of the nation the concep- 
tion of God as holy and just and compassionate and loving, — 
as the Universal Father whose care is over not one people alone 
but over all peoples and all races. 

This idea of God and his character was the best element in 
the bequest which the ancient Hebrews made to the younger 
Aryan world of Europe, and is largely what entitles them to the 
preeminent place they hold in the history of humanity. 

81. Ideas of the Future Life. — The early Hebrew conception of 
the future life was borrowed from the Babylonians. Sheol was the 
Babylonian "land of no return" (sec. 53), a vague and shadowy 
region beneath the earth, a sad and dismal place. "The small 
and the great were there." There was no distinction even between 
the good and the bad ; the same lot awaited all who went down 
into the "pit." The good man received his reward in long life 
and prosperity here on earth. 

As time passed the Hebrews exchanged this gloomy Babylonian 
conception of the other life for one more like that of old Egypt, 
so that it was by them that the doctrine of immortality and of a 
coming judgment was spread abroad in the Western world. 

Selection from the Sources. — The Old Testament, 1 Kings v-viii, the 
building and the dedication by Solomon of the Temple at Jerusalem. 

Secondary Works. — Sayce, A. H., Early Israel and the Surrounding 
Nations. Kent, C. F., A History of the Hebrew People, 2 vols. Kenan, 
E., History of the People of Israel, 4 vols. Corn ill, C. H., History of the 
People of Israel. Bougi-iton, W., History of Ancient Peoples, pp. 345-427. 
HlLPRECHT, II. V., Recent Research in Bible Lands ; consult Table of Con- 
tents. Ball, A. J., light from the East. DUFF, A., The Theology and Ethics 
of the Hebrews. The special student will of course consult McCukdy, J. F., 
History, Prophecy, and the Monuments, 3 vols. 

Topics for Class Reports. — I. Influence of early Babylonian culture 
on Israel. 2. The Exile in Babylon and its influence upon the develop- 
ment of the Hebrew religion. 3. Earlier Hebrew ideas of the future life. 
4. Hebrew laws respecting usury, the land, and the bondsman. 



CHAPTER VII 



THE PHOENICIANS 



82 . The Land and the People. — Ancient Phoenicia embraced a 
little strip of broken seacoast lying between the Mediterranean 
Sea and the ranges of Mount Lebanon. 1 One of the most noted 
productions of the country was the fine fir timber cut from the 
forests that crowned the lofty ranges of the Lebanon Mountains. 
The " cedars of Lebanon " hold a prominent place both in the 
history and in the poetry of the East. 

Another celebrated product of the country was the Tyrian 
purple, which was obtained from several varieties of the murex, a 

species of shellfish secured at first 
along the Phoenician coast, but later 
sought in distant waters, especially in 
the Grecian seas. 

The Phoenicians were of Semitic 
race. Their ancestors lived in the 
neighborhood of the Persian Gulf. 
From their seats in that region they 
migrated westward, like the ancestors 
of the Hebrews, and reached the 
Mediterranean before the light of 
history had fallen upon its shores. 

83. Tyre and Sidon. — The various Phoenician cities never 
coalesced to form a true nation. They constituted merely a sort 
of league or confederacy, the petty states of which generally 
acknowledged the leadership of Tyre or of Sidon, the two chief 
cities. The place of supremacy in the confederation was at first 
held by Sidon, but later by Tyre. 




Fig. 31. — Species of the 
Murex. (After Masperd) 

The mollusks which secrete the 
famous purple dye of the 
ancient Tyrians 



1 In the study of this chapter, the maps which will be found at pp. 50 and 99 
should be used. 

54 



PHCENICIAN COMMERCE 



55 



From the eleventh to the fourth century B.C. Tyre controlled, 
almost without dispute on the part of Sidon, the affairs of Phoe- 
nicia. During this time the maritime enterprise and energy of her 
merchants spread the fame of the little island capital throughout 
the world. She was queen and mistress of the Mediterranean. 

During all the last centuries of their existence the Phoenician 
cities were, most of the time, tributary to one or another of the 
great monarchies about them. They acknowledged in turn the 
suzerainty of the Egyptian, the Assyrian, the Babylonian, the Per- 
sian, and the Macedonian kings. Alexander the Great after a 
memorable siege captured the city of Tyre and reduced it to 
ruins (332 B.C.). She recovered in a measure from this blow, 
but never regained the place she had previously held in the world. 
The larger part of the site of the once great city is now " bare 
as the top of a rock," — a place where the fishermen that still 
frequent the spot spread their nets to dry. 

84. Phoenician Commerce. — When we catch our first glimpse 
of the Eastern Mediterranean, about 1500 B.C., it is dotted with 
the sails of Phoeni- 
cian navigators. It 
is natural that the 
people of the Phoeni- 
cian coast should 
have been led to a 
seafaring life. The 
lofty mountains that 
back the little strip 
of shore seemed to 
shut them out from 
a career of conquest 
and to prohibit an extension of their land domains. At the same 
time, the Mediterranean in front invited them to maritime enter- 
prise, while the forests of Lebanon in the rear offered timber in 
abundance for their ships. 

The Phoenicians, indeed, seem to have been the first navigators 
of the Great Sea who pushed out boldly from the shore and made 




Fig. 32. 



— Phoenician Galley. 
an Assyrian sculpture) 



(From 



56 THE PHOENICIANS 

voyages out of sight of land. It is believed that they were the 
first to steer their ships at night by the Polar Star, since the Greeks 
called this the Phoenician Star. 

One of the earliest centers of activity of the Phoenician traders 
was the ^Egean Sea. Here they exchanged wares with the natives, 
searched the seas for the purple-yielding mollusks, and mined the 
hills for gold. Herodotus avers that a whole mountain on one 
of the islands was turned upside down by them in their search 
for ores. 

Towards the close of the tenth or the ninth century B.C. the 
jealousy of the Greek city-states, now growing into maritime 
power, closed the ./Egean against the Phoenician adventurers. 
They then pushed out into the Western Mediterranean. One chief 
object of their quest here was tin, which was in great demand on 
account of its use in the manufacture of bronze. The precious 
metal was first supplied by the mines opened in the Iberian 
(Spanish) peninsula. Later the bold Phoenician sailors passed 
the Pillars of Hercules, braved the daUfgers of the Atlantic, and 
brought back from those stormy seas the tin gathered in the 
mines of Britain. 2 

85. Phoenician Colonies. — Along the different routes pursued 
by their ships, and upon the coasts visited by them, the Phoenicians 
established naval stations and trading posts. The sites chosen 
were generally islands or promontories easily defended, and visible 
from afar to approaching ships. 

Settlements were planted in Cyprus, in Rhodes, and on other 
islands of the ^Egean Sea, and probably even in Greece itself. 



2 From the mother city Tyre and from all her important colonies and trading 
posts radiated long routes of land travel by which articles were conveyed from the 
interior of the continents to the Mediterranean seaboard. Thus amber was brought 
from the Baltic, through the forests of Germany, to the mouth of the river Padus 
(Po), in Italy; while the tin of the British Isles was, at first, brought across Gaul to 
the outlets of the Rhone, and there loaded upon the Phoenician ships. The trade 
with India was carried on by way of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, great cara- 
vans bearing the burdens from the ports at the heads of these seas across the Arabian 
and Syrian deserts to the warehouses of Tyre. Other routes led from Phoenicia 
across the Mesopotamian plains to Armenia, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, and thence 
on into the heart of Central Asia. 



BABYLONIAN 


PHOENICIAN, 


BABYLONIAN 


SEMITIC 


ARCHAIC 


OLD ARAM-EAN 


NAMES AND SOUNDS 


NAMES 


J 


Ik ^ 


hal(nl, at), to flow; 
running water 


al-p 


4^ 


$ e s 


ba(t), bi{f), slit 


bet 


1 


11a 


gam, bend, bow 


gim-l 


<^> A 


A a 


ku(n), gush, bright, 
ge, ear 


dal-t 


V i 


<\Aq 


da, make, dal, shine, 
Dallu 





ARTS DISSEMINATED BY THE PHOENICIANS $7 

The shores of the islands of Sicily and Sardinia were fringed with 
Phoenician colonies ; while the coast of North Africa was dotted 
with such great cities as Utica, Hippo, and Carthage. Colonies 
were even planted 
beyond the Pillars 
of Hercules, upon 
the Atlantic sea- 
board. The Phoe- 
nician settlement 
of Gades, upon the 
western coast of 
Spain, is still pre- 
served in the 
modern Cadiz. 

86. Arts dis- 
seminated by the 
Phoenicians; the 
Alphabet. — Com- 
merce has been 
called the path- 
breaker of civil- 
ization. Certainly 
it was such in an- 
tiquity when the 
Phoenician traders 
carried in their 
ships to every 
Mediterranean 
land the wares of 
the workshops of 
Tyre and Sidon, 
and along with these material products carried also the seeds of 
culture from the ancient lands of Egypt and Babylonia. In truth 
we can scarcely overrate the influence of Phoenician maritime 
enterprise upon the distribution of the arts and the spread of cul- 
ture among the early peoples of the Mediterranean area. " Egypt 



PHOENICIAN 


ANCIENT GREEK 


LATER GREEK 


ENGLISH 


## 


/\ 4AA 


A. A 


A 


*) 


& & 


B 


B 


4 A 


A^l AC 


r 


C 


A A 


^AVP 


A. 


D 


^ 


^£^£ 


E 6 


E 


1 


A /=■ 




F 


Z 


Si Z JO 


Z 


Z 



Fig. 33. — Table showing (i) Possible Deriva- 
tion of the Phoenician Alphabet from 
Cuneiform Characters (after Ball) ; and (2) 
Development of English Letters from the 
Phoenician 



58 THE PHOENICIANS 

and Assyria," says Lenormant, "were the birthplace of material 
civilization ; the Phoenicians were its missionaries." 

Most fruitful of all the arts which the Phoenicians introduced 
among the peoples with whom they traded was the art of alpha- 
betic writing. As early at least as 900 b.c. they were in posses- 
sion of an alphabet. Now wherever the Phoenician traders went 
they carried this alphabet as " one of their exports." It was through 
them that the Greeks received it ; the Greeks passed it on to the 
Romans, and the Romans gave it to the German folk. In this 
way our alphabet came to us from the ancient East. It would be 
difficult to exaggerate the importance of this gift of the alphabet 
to the Aryan-speaking peoples of Europe. Without it their civiliza- 
tion could never have become so rich and progressive as it did. 

Among the other elements of culture which the Phoenicians 
carried to the peoples of the Mediterranean lands, the most 
important, after alphabetical writing, were systems of weights and 
measures. These are indispensable agents of civilization, and 
hold some such relation to the development of trade and com- 
merce as letters hold to the development of the intellectual life. 

Phoenician commercial enterprise was also one of the agencies 
through which the peoples of Europe learned the use of bronze, 
which marks an epoch in their growing culture. Bronze articles 
of Phoenician workmanship are found in the earliest tombs of the 
Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Romans. 

Selections from the Sources. — The Bible, Ezek. xxvii. A striking por- 
trayal by the prophet of the commerce, the trade relations, and the wealth 
of Tyre. The Voyage of Hanno, a record of a Phoenician exploring expedi- 
tion down the western coast of Africa. A translation of this celebrated 
record will be found in Rawlinson's History of Phoenicia, pp. 389-392. 

Secondary Works. — Rawlinson, G., History of Phoenicia and The 
Story of Phoenicia. Kenrick, J., Phoenicia; old (1855), but still valuable. 
Lenormant and Chevallier, Ancient History of the East, vol. ii. Con- 
sult Table of Contents. Sayce, A. H., The Ancient Empires of the East, 
chap. iii. Libbey, W., and Hoskins, F. E., The fordan Valley and Petra. 
Petra was the chief station on the great caravan route across the desert 
from Babylonia to Gaza and the cities of Phoenicia. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The trade routes of the Phoenicians. 
2. The Phoenicians and the alphabet. 3. The Tyrian purple dye. 






CHAPTER VIII 
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE 

(558-33O B.C.) 

I. Political History 

87. Beginning of the Medo-Persian Power. — In remote times 
some Aryan tribes, separating from the other members of the 
Aryan family, sought new abodes on the plateau of Iran. The 
tribes that settled in the south became known as the Persians, 
while those that took possession of the mountain regions of the 
northwest were called Medes. The names of the two peoples 
were always very closely associated, as in the familiar legend, 
"The law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not." 

The Medes were at first the leading people. Cyaxares (625- 
585 B.C.) was their first prominent leader and king. It was this 
king who, aided by the Babylonians, overthrew the last king of 
Nineveh and destroyed that capital (sec. 70). The destruction 
of the Assyrian power, resulted in the speedy extension of the 
frontiers of the new Median Empire to the river Halys in Asia 
Minor. 

88. Cyrus the Great (558-529 B.C.) founds a World Empire. — 
The leadership of the Median chieftains was of short duration. 
A certain Cyrus, king of Anshan, in Elam, overthrew their power, 
assumed the headship of both Medes and Persians, and soon 
built up an empire more extended, so far as we know, than any 
established before his time. 

After the conquest of Media, Cyrus rounded out his empire by 
the conquest of Lydia and Babylonia. Lydia was a country in 
the western part of Asia Minor. It embraced two rich river 
valleys, — the plains of the Hermus and the Cayster, — which, 
from the mountains inland, slope gently to the island-dotted 
^Egean. The Pactolus, and other tributaries of the streams we 

59 



60 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE 

have named, rolied down "golden sands," while the mountains 
were rich in the precious" metals. The coast region did not at first 
belong to Lydia ; it was held by the Greeks, who had fringed it 
with cities. The capital of the country was Sardis. 
- The Lydian throne was at this time held by Croesus (560- 
546 B.C.), the last and most renowned of his, race. The tribute 
Croesus collected from the Greek cities which he had subjugated 
and the revenue he derived from his gold mines rendered him 
the richest monarch of his times, so that *his name has passed 
into the proverb "rich as Croesus." 

It was this king who, alarmed at the growth of the Persian 
power, threw down the gage of battle to Cyrus. Cyrus defeated 
the Lydians in the open field, and after a short siege captured 
Sardis. Lydia now became a part of the Persian Empire (546 B.C.). 
This war between Croesus and Cyrus derives special importance 
from the fact that it brought the Persian Empire into contact 
with the Greek cities of Asia, and thus led on directly to a 
memorable struggle between Greece and Persia, the incidents of 
which we shall narrate in a later chapter. 

The fall of Lydia was "followed by that of Babylon, as has been 
already related as part of the story of the Chaldean Empire 
(sec. 70). Cyrus had now rounded out his dominions. 

Notwithstanding his seeming love for war and conquest, Cyrus 
possessed a kindly and generous disposition. Almost universal 
testimony has ascribed to him the purest and most beneficent 
character of any Eastern monarch. 

89. Reign of Cambyses (529-522 B.C.). — Cyrus was followed 
by his son Cambyses. With far less ability than his father for their 
execution, Cambyses conceived even vaster projects of conquest 
and dominion. He determined to add the country of Africa 
to his vast inheritance. Upon some slight pretext he invaded 
Egypt, captured Memphis, and ascended the Nile to Thebes. 
From here he sent an army of fifty thousand men to take posses- 
sion of the oasis of Amnion * in the Libyan desert. Of the vast 

l This oasis was to serve as a basis of operations against Carthage, which Cam- 
byses was planning to attack by way of the desert. 



REIGN OF DARIUS I 6l 

host not a man returned from the expedition. It is thought that 
the army was overwhelmed and buried by one of those fatal 
storms, called simoons, that so frequently sweep over those dreary 
wastes of sand. 

After a short, unsatisfactory stay in Egypt, Cambyses set out 
on his return to Persia. While on his way home, news was 
brought to him that a usurper had seized the throne. Cast down 
by this intelligence, Cambyses in despair took his own life. 

90. Reign of Darius I (521-484 B.C.). — The Persian nobles 
soon rescued the scepter from the grasp of the usurper, and their 
leader, Darius, took the -k „ > m 
throne. With quiet and pfV- -- ■->'*" -^ :-'-i.---_ - .„.. >,-- 



submission secured / 

throughout the empire, } 

the new king gave him- \ 

self, for a time, to the 1 

arts of peace. He built ' 

splendid structures at ] 

Persepolis ; reformed J 

the government, making ' P- : . •'•'..- •';■ 1 i \ j ~ •■ T- 

such, wise and lasting " "~--~--~ z ~~~' 

changes that he has Fig. 34. -Insurgent Captives brought 

. „ , „ , , before Darius 

been called " the second 

- , ,.,_,. (From the Behistun Rock) 

founder of the Persian 

Empire " • established post roads; and upon the great Behistun 
Rock, a lofty, smooth-faced cliff on the western frontier of Persia, 
caused to be inscribed a record of all he had done. 

And now the Great King, lord of Western Asia and of Egypt, 
conceived and entered upon the execution of vast designs of 
conquest, the far-reaching effects of which were destined to live 
long after he had passed away. He determined to extend the 
frontiers of his empire into India and Europe alike. 

At one blow Darius brought the region of Northwestern India 
known as the Punjab under his authority, and thus by a single 
effort pushed out the eastern boundary of his empire so that it 
included one of the richest countries of Asia. 







62 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE 

Two campaigns in Europe followed. The second brought 
Darius into contact with the Greeks, of whom we shall soon hear 
much. How the armaments of the Great King fared at the 
hands of this freedom-loving people, who now appear for the 
first time as prominent actors in large world affairs, will be told 
when we come to narrate the history of Greece. We need here 
simply note the result, — ■ the decisive defeat of the Persians at 
Marathon (sec. 173). In the midst of preparations for another 
attempt upon Greece, Darius suddenly died, in the year 484 B.C. 

91. Reign of Xerxes I (484-464 B.C.). — The successor of 
Darius, his son Xerxes, resolved to carry into execution his 
father's plans of conquest in Europe. At the head of an immense 
army he crossed the Hellespont and invaded Greece. But in the 
naval battle of Salamis (sec. 181) his fleet was cut to pieces by 
the Grecian ships, and the king made a precipitate retreat into 
Asia. He finally fell a victim to palace intrigue. 

92 . End of the Persian Empire. — ■ The power and supremacy 
of the Persian monarchy passed away with the reign of Xerxes. 
In the year 334 B.C. Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, led 
a small army of Greeks and Macedonians across the Hellespont 
intent upon the conquest of Asia. The story of the establishment 
by him of the short-lived Macedonian monarchy upon the ruins 
of the Persian Empire properly belongs to Grecian history, and 
will be related at a later stage of our narrative. 

II. Government, Religion, and Arts 

93. The Government. — Before the reign of Darius I the gov- 
ernment of the Persian Empire was like that of all the great 
empires that had preceded it, save the Assyrian in a measure and 
for a short space of time ; that is to say, it consisted of a great 
number of subject states, which were allowed to retain their own 
kings and manage their own affairs, merely paying tribute and 
homage and furnishing war contingents to the Great King. 

Darius converted this primitive type of government into what 
is known as the satrapal, a form represented to-day by the 



LITERATURE AND RELIGION 63 

Turkish Empire. The entire kingdom was divided into twenty or 
more provinces, over each of which was placed a governor, called 
a satrap, appointed by the king. These officials held their posi- 
tion at the pleasure of the sovereign. Each province contributed 
to the income of the king a stated revenue. 

There were provisions in the system whereby the king might 
be apprised of the disloyalty of his' satraps. Thus the whole 
dominion was firmly cemented together, and the facility with 
which the practically sovereign states making up the empire under 
the old system could plan and execute revolt was removed. 

94. Literature and Religion: Zoroastrianism. — The literature 
of the ancient Persians was mostly religious. Their sacred book 
is called the Zend-Avesta. The religious system it teaches is 
known as Zoroastrianism, from Zoroaster, its supposed founder. 
This great reformer and teacher is believed to have lived and 
taught about six centuries before our era. 

Zoroastrianism was a system of belief known as dualism. 
Opposed to the "good spirit," Ormazd (Ahura Mazda), there 
was a "dark spirit," Ahriman (Angro-Mainyus), who was con- 
stantly striving to destroy the good creations of Ormazd by cre- 
ating all evil things, — storm, drought, pestilence, noxious animals, 
weeds and thorns in the world without, and evil in the heart of 
man within. From all eternity these two powers had been con- 
tending for the mastery ; in the present neither had the decided 
advantage, but in the near future Ormazd would triumph over 
Ahriman, and evil be forever destroyed. 

The duty of man was to aid Ormazd by working with him 
against the evil-loving Ahriman. He must labor to eradicate 
every evil and vice in his own bosom, to reclaim the earth from 
barrenness, and to kill all noxious animals — frogs, toads, snakes, 
lizards — which Ahriman had created. Herodotus saw with amaze- 
ment the priests armed with weapons and engaged in slaying these 
animals as a " pious pastime." 

95. Architecture. — In imitation of the inhabitants of the valley 
of the Euphrates, the Persian kings raised their palaces upon lofty 
terraces or platforms. But upon the table-lands they used stone 



6 4 



THE PERSIAN EMPIRE 



instead of brick, and at Persepolis built for the substruction of 
their palaces an immense platform of massive masonry, which, 
with its sculptured stairways, is one of the most wonderful monu- 
ments of the world's ancient builders. This terrace, which is unin- 
jured by the twenty-three hundred years that have passed since its 




Fig. 35. — The Ruins of Persepolis 

erection, has been pronounced by competent judges the finest 
work of the kind that the ancient or even the modern world can 
boast. Surmounting this platform are the ruins of the residences 
of several of the Persian monarchs. 



Selections from the Sources. — Herodotus, i. 46-55 and 71-91, on 
Cyrus and Croesus. Harper's Assyrian and Babylonian Literature, pp. 174- 
187, " The Large Inscription of Darius from Behistun." 

Secondary Works. — Maspero, G., The Passing of the Empires, chap. vi. 
Rawlinson, G., Five Great Monarchies, vol. iii, pp. 84-539. Sayce, A. H., 
The Ancient Empires of the East, chaps, iv and v. Wheeler, B. I., Alex- 
ander the Great, chap. xii. Jackson, A. V. W., Zoroaster, the Prophet of 
Ancient Iran. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Dualism in the Persian religion. 2. The 
Zend-Avesta. 3. The royal road from Susa to Sardis. 4. The satrapal 
system of government. 5. The ruins of Persepolis. 



CHAPTER IX 
INDIA AND CHINA 

I. India 

96. The Aryan Invasion. — At the time of the great Aryan dis- 
persion (sec. 17, n. 4), some Aryan bands, journeying from the 
northwest, settled first the plains of the Indus and then occupied 
the valley of the Ganges. They reached the banks of the latter 
river as early probably as 1500 B.C. These fair-skinned invaders 
found the land occupied by a dark-skinned, non-Aryan race, whom 
they either reduced to serfdom or drove out of the great river val- 
leys into the mountains and the half-desert plains of the peninsula. 
In the course of time the conquered peoples, who doubtless 
formed the great majority of the population, adopted the language 
and the religion of the invaders. " They became Aryans in all 
things save in descent." x 

97. The Development of the System of Castes. — The conflict 
and mingling of races in Northern India caused the population to 
become divided into four "social grades" or hereditary classes, 
based on color. These were (1) the nobles or warriors; (2) the 
Brahmans or priests ; 2 (3) the peasants and traders ; and (4) the 

Sudras. The last were of non-Aryan descent. Below these several 

grades were the Pariahs or outcasts, the lowest and most despised 
of the native races. The marked characteristics of this graded 
society were that intermarriage between the classes was forbidden, 
and that the members of different classes must not eat together 
or come into personal contact. 

The development of this system, which is known as the system 
of castes, is one of the most important facts in the history of 

1 The tribes of Southern India, known as Dra vidians, retained their native speech. 
Over 54,000,000 of the present population of India are non-Aryan in language. 

2 At a later period the Brahmans arrogated to themselves the highest rank. 

65 



66 INDIA AND CHINA 

India. The system, however, has undergone great modification 
in the lapse of ages, and is now less rigid than in earlier times. 
At the present day it rests largely on an industrial basis, the mem- 
bers of every trade and occupation forming a distinct caste. The 
number of castes is now about two thousand. 

98. The Vedas and the Vedic Religion. — The most important 
of the sacred books of the Hindus are called the Vedas. They 
are written in the Sanskrit language, which is the oldest form of 
Aryan speech preserved to us. The early religion of the Indian 
Aryans was a worship of the powers of nature. As this system 
characterized the period when the oldest Vedic hymns were 
composed, it is known as the Vedic religion. 

99. Brahmanism and the Doctrine of the Transmigration of 
Souls. — As time passed this nature worship of the Vedic period 
developed into a form of religion known as Brahmanism. It is so 
named from Brahma, which is the Hindu name for the Supreme 
Being. Below Brahma there are many gods. 

A chief doctrine of Brahmanism is that of rebirth. According 
to this teaching the good man is at death reborn into some higher 
caste, while the evil man is reborn into a lower caste, or perhaps 
his soul enters some unclean animal. This doctrine of rebirth is 
known as the Transmigration of Souls. 

100. Buddhism. — In the fifth century before our era a great 
teacher and reformer named Gautama (about 557-477 B.C.), but 
better known as Buddha, that is the Enlightened, arose in India. 
He was born a prince, but legend represents him as being so 
touched by the universal misery of mankind that he voluntarily 
abandoned the luxury of his home and spent his life in seeking 
out and making known to men a new and better way of salvation. 
His creed was very simple. What he taught the people was that 
they should seek salvation not through the observance of religious 
rites and ceremonies but through honesty and purity of heart, 
through charity and tenderness and compassion toward all crea- 
tures that have life. 

Buddhism gradually gained ascendancy over Brahmanism ; but 
after some centuries the Brahmans regained their power, and by 



CHINESE WRITING 67 

the eighth century after Christ the faith of Buddha had died out 
or had been crowded out of almost every part of India. 3 

But Buddhism, like Christianity, has a profound missionary 
spirit, and during the very period when India was being lost the 
missionaries of the reformed creed were spreading the teachings 
of their master among the peoples of all the countries of Eastern 
Asia, so that to-day Buddhism is the religion of almost one third 
of the human race. Buddha has probably nearly as many followers 
as both Christ and Mohammed together. 

II. China 

10 1. General Remarks. — China was the cradle of a very old 
civilization, older perhaps than that of any other lands save Egypt 
and Babylonia ; yet Chinese affairs have not until recently exer- 
cised any direct influence upon the general current of history. All 
through the later ancient and mediaeval times the country lay, 
vague and mysterious, in the haze of the world's horizon. During 
the Middle Ages the land was known to Europe under the name 
of Cathay. 

The government of China from a remote period has been a 
parental monarchy. The emperor is the father of his people. 
But though an absolute prince, he dare not rule tyrannically ; he 
must rule justly and in accordance with the ancient customs. 

102. Chinese Writing. — It is nearly certain that the art of pho- 
netic writing was known among the Chinese as early as 2000 B.C. 
The system employed is curiously cumbrous. In the absence of 
an alphabet, each word of the language is represented upon the 
written page by means of a symbol, or combination of symbols ; 
this, of course, requires that there be as many symbols or charac- 
ters as there are words in the language. The number sanctioned 
by good use is about twenty-five thousand ; but counting obsolete 
signs, the number amounts to over fifty thousand. A knowledge 

3 Among the customs introduced or revived by the Brahmans during this period 
was the rite of suttee, or the voluntary burning of the widow on the funeral pyre of 
her husband. 



68 INDIA AND CHINA 

of five or six thousand characters, however, enables one to read 
and write without difficulty. The nature of the signs shows con- 
clusively that the Chinese system of writing, like that of all others 
with which we are acquainted, was at first pure picture writing 

(I) -w A ^ SeC ' ri )' TimC 

Q K3 /f^. }j( f^ <3 W A and use have worn 

the pictorial sym- 

1234567 

system of repre- 

Fig. 36. — Showing the Derivation of Mod- senting thought 

ern Chinese Characters from Earlier cumbrous and in [ 

Pictorial Writing. 4 (From Deniker) . . . 

convenient as it is, 

is employed at the present time by one third of mankind. 

Printing from blocks' was practiced in China as early as the 
sixth century of our era, and printing from movable types as 
early as the tenth or eleventh century, — that is to say, about 
four hundred years before the same art was invented in Europe 
(sec. 678). 

103. The Teachers Confucius and Mencius. — The great teacher 
of the Chinese was Confucius (551-478 B.C.). He was not a 
prophet or revealer ; he laid no claims to a supernatural knowl- 
edge of God or of the hereafter ; he said nothing of an Infinite 
Spirit, and but little of a future life. His cardinal precepts were 
obedience to parents and superiors, and reverence for the ancients 
and imitation of their virtues. He himself walked in the old 
paths, and thus added the force of example to that of precept. 
He gave the Chinese the Golden Rule, stated negatively : " What 
you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." The 
influence of Confucius has been greater than that of any other 
teacher excepting Christ and perhaps Buddha. 

Another great teacher of the Chinese was Mencius (3 7 2— 2 88 B.C.). 
He was a disciple of Confucius and a scarcely less revered phi- 
losopher and moral teacher. 

4 The upper line shows the earlier forms : I, morning ; 2, noon ; 3, mountain ; 
4, tree; 5, dog; 6, horse; 7, man. 



CHINESE LITERATURE 69 

104. Chinese Literature. — The most highly prized portion of 
Chinese literature is embraced in what is known as the Five 
Classics and the Four Books, called collectively the Nine Classics. 
A considerable part of the material of the Five Classics was col- 
lected and edited by Confucius. The Four Books, though not writ- 
ten by Confucius, yet bear the impress of his mind and thought, 
just as the Gospels teach the mind of Christ. The cardinal virtue 
inculcated by all the sacred writings is filial piety. 

It would be difficult to exaggerate the influence which the Nine 
Classics have had upon the Chinese nation. For more than two 
thousand years these writings have been the Chinese Bible. But 
their influence has not been wholly good. The Chinese in strictly 
obeying the injunction to walk in the old ways, to conform to the 
customs of the ancients, have failed to mark out any new foot- 
paths for themselves ; hence one cause of the unprogressive char- 
acter of Chinese civilization. 

105. Education and Civil Service Competitive Examinations. — 
China has a very ancient educational system. The land was 
filled with schools, academies, and colleges more than a thousand 
years before our era, and education is to-day more general among 
the Chinese than among any other pagan people. A knowledge 
of the sacred books was until recently the sole passport to civil 
office and public employment. 5 All candidates for places in the 
government had to pass a series of competitive examinations in 
the Nine Classics. At the opening of the present century there 
were between two and three million persons studying for these 
literary tests. This ancient system is practically the same in prin- 
ciple as that which we, with great difficulty, are trying to establish 
in connection with our own civil service. 

106. The Three Religions, — Confucianism, Taoism, and Bud- 
dhism. — There are three leading religions in China, — Confu- 
cianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. The great sage Confucius is 
reverenced and worshiped throughout the empire. Taoism takes 
its name from Tao, the beginning of all things. It is a very curious 

5 In the year 1905 the Dowager Empress by edict ordered that in future exami- 
nations the sciences of the West should be substituted for the ancient classics. 



yo INDIA AND CHINA 

system of mystical ideas and superstitious practices. Buddhism 
was introduced into China about the opening of the Christian era, 
and soon became widely spread. 

There is one element common to all these religions, and that 
is the worship of ancestors. Every Chinese, whether he be a 
Confucianist, a Taoist, or a Buddhist, reverences his ancestors, 
and prays and makes offerings to their spirits. 

107. Policy of Nonintercourse. — The Chinese have always 
been a very self-satisfied and exclusive people. They have jeal- 
ously excluded foreigners and outside influence from their coun- 
try. The Great Wall with which they have hedged in their 
country on the north is the symbol of their policy of isolation. 
Doubtless this characteristic of the Chinese has been fostered by 
their geographical isolation ; for great mountain barriers and wide 
deserts cut the country off from communication with the rest of 
the Asiatic continent. And then their reverence for antiquity has 
rendered them intolerant of innovation and change ; hence, in 
part, the reluctance of the Chinese to admit into their country 
railroads, telegraphs, and other modern improvements. Such a 
departure from the ways and customs of the past has in it, to 
their way of thinking, something akin to disrespect and irreverence 
for ancestors. 

Secondary Works. — For India : Ragozin, Z. A., The Story of Vedic 
India. Hunter, W. W., A Brief History of the Peoples of India, chaps, 
i-vi. Dutt, R. C, The Civilization of India (Primer). Rhys Davids, 
T. W., Buddhist India and Buddhism, its History and Literature. Warren, 
H. C, Buddhism in Translation. Hopkins, E. W., The Religions of India. 

For China : Williams, S. W., A History of China, being the historical 
chapters of the author's The Middle Kingdom. Legge, J., The Religions of 
China. Douglas, R. K., China. Giles, H. A., A History of Chinese 
Literature. MARTIN, W. A. P., The Lore of Cathay. Doolittle, F., Social 
Life of the Chinese. 

Topics for Class Reports. — For India : 1. The Vedas. 2. Early Indian 
architecture. 3. The suttee. 4. The caste system. 5. The doctrine of 
transmigration. 6. The rise of Buddhism. 7. The doctrine of Nirvana. 

For China: 1. Confucius. 2. The Great Wall. 3. The competitive ex- 
aminations. 4. The cardinal virtues. 5. Chinese writing. 6. Manners and 
customs. 



Division II — Greece 

CHAPTER X 
THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 

108. Hellas. — The ancient people whom we call Greeks called 
themselves Hellenes and their land Hellas. But this term " Hel- 
las " as used by the ancient Greeks embraced much more than 
modern Greece. " Wherever were Hellenes there was Hellas." 
Thus the name included not only Greece, proper and the islands 
of the adjoining seas, but also the Hellenic cities in Asia Minor, 
in Southern Italy, and in Sicily, besides many other Greek settle- 
ments scattered up and down the Mediterranean and along the 
shores of the Hellespont and the Euxine. Yet Greece proper 
was the real home land of the Hellenes and the actual center of 
Greek life and culture. 

109. Divisions of Greece. — Long arms of the sea divide the 
Greek peninsula into three parts, called Northern , Central, and 
Southern Greece. The southern portion, joined to the mainland 
by the Isthmus of Corinth, and now generally known as the 
Morea, was called by the ancients the Peloponnesus; that is, 
the Island of Pelops, from its fabled colonizer. 

Northern Greece included the ancient districts of Thessaly and 
Epirus. Thessaly consists mainly of a large and beautiful valley, 
walled in on all sides by rugged mountains. On its northern 
edge, between Olympus and Ossa, is a beautiful glen, named by 
the ancients the Vale of Tempe, the only practicable pass by 
which the plain of Thessaly can be entered from the side of the 
sea. The district of Epirus stretched along the Ionian Sea on 
the west. In the deep recesses of its forests of oak was situated 
the renowned Dodona^an oracle of Zeus. 

Central Greece was divided into eleven districts, among which 
were Phocis, Boeotia, and Attica. In Phocis was the city of 

71 



J2 THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 

Delphi, famous for its oracle and temple ; in Boeotia, the city of 
Thebes ; and in Attica was the brilliant Athens. The , Attic l and, 
as we shall learn, was the central point of Greek history. 

The chief districts of Southern Greece were Corinthia, Arcadia, 
Achsea, Argolis, Laconia, and Elis. 

The main part of Corinthia formed the isthmus uniting the 
Peloponnesus to Central Greece. Its chief city was Corinth, the 
gateway of the peninsula. 

Arcadia, sometimes called " the Switzerland of the Pelopon- 
nesus," formed the heart of the peninsula. This region consists 
of broken uplands shut in from the surrounding coast plains by 
irregular mountain walls. The inhabitants of this district, because 
thus isolated, were, in the general intellectual movement of the 
Greek race, left far behind the dwellers in the more open and 
favored portions of Greece. It is the rustic, simple life of the 
Arcadians that has given the term "Arcadian " its meaning of 
pastoral simplicity. 

Argolis formed a tongue of land jutting out into the ^Egean. 
This region is noted as the home of an early prehistoric culture, 
and holds to-day the remains of cities — Mycense and Tiryns — 
the kings of which built great palaces, possessed vast treasures in 
gold and silver, and held wide sway centuries before Athens had 
made for herself a name and place in history. The chief city of 
the region during the historic period was Argos. 

Laconia, or Lacedsemon, embraced a considerable part of the 
southern portion of the Peloponnesus. A prominent feature of 
the physical geography of this region is a deep river valley, — the 
valley of the Eurotas, — from whence arose the descriptive name, 
"Hollow Lacedaemon." This district was ruled by the city of 
Sparta, the great rival of Athens. 

Elis, a district on the western side of the Peloponnesus, is 
chiefly noted as the consecrated land which held Olympia, the 
great assembling place of the Greeks for the celebration of the 
most famous of their festivals, — the so-called Olympian ^ames. 

no. Mountains. — The Cambunian Mountains form a lofty wall 
along a considerable reach of the northern frontier of Greece, 



-^ **««/, 




^4^jCualcedon 



*<0 



^ 



p|r op o n 1 1 s 

3>Priapu 



5,afnps 



Hellespont* 

"^7(onj(i'm or Troy) p H B v)g I V 



Tenedosr 3 j Y^^ThEL^E S P N T?I C A I & 
Neana«a° \ 45, mt. Ida / ^ 

/ -4? \,3F o Antandrua / 
Laris|sa> Asso.s^_>-r- b Aaramyttfum 




THE RIVERS AND LAKES OF THE LAND 



73 



shutting out at once the cold winds and hostile races from the 
north. Branching off at right angles to these mountains is the 
Pindus range, which runs south into Central Greece. 

On the northern border of Thessaly is Mount OlympuS ; the 
most celebrated mountain of the peninsula. The Greeks thought it 
the highest mountain in the world (its height is about 9700 feet), 
and believed that its cloudy summit was the abode of the gods. 




Fig. 37. — The Plain of Olympia. (From Boetticher's Olympia) 
The valley of the Alpheus in Elis, where were held the celebrated Olympian games 

South of Olympus, close by the sea, are Ossa and Pelion, cele- 
brated in fable as the mountains which the giants, in their war against 
the gods, piled one upon another in order to scale Olympus. 

Parnassus and Helicon, in Central Greece, — beautiful moun- 
tains clad with trees and vines and filled with fountains,' — were 
believed to be haunts of the Muses. Near Athens are Hymettus, 
praised for its honey, and Pentelicus, renowned for its marbles. 

The Peloponnesus is rugged with mountains that radiate in all 
directions from the central country of Arcadia. 

in. The Rivers and Lakes of the Land. — Greece has no rivers 
large enough to be of service to commerce. Most of the streams 



74 THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 

are scarcely more than winter torrents. Among the most impor- 
tant streams are the Peneus, which drains the Thessalian plain ; 
the Alpheus in Elis, on the banks of which the Olympian games 
were celebrated ; and the Eurotas, which threads the central val- 
ley of Laconia. 

The lakes of Greece are in the main scarcely more than stag- 
nant pools, the backwater of spring freshets. In this respect, 
Greece, though a mountainous country, presents a striking con- 
trast to Switzerland, whose numerous and deep lakes form one of 
the most attractive features of Swiss scenery. 

112. Islands about Greece. — Very much of the history of 
Greece is intertwined with the islands that lie about the main- 
land. On the east, in the yEgean Sea, are the Cyclades, so called 
because they form an irregular circle round the sacred island of 
Delos, where was a very celebrated shrine of Apollo. Between 
the Cyclades and Asia Minor lie the Sporades, which islands, as 
the name implies, are sown irregularly over that portion of the 
^Egean. They are simply the peaks of submerged mountain ranges, 
which may be regarded as a continuation beneath the sea of the 
mountains of Central Greece. 

Just off the coast of Attica is a large island called by the 
ancients Euboea, and known to-day as Euvia. Close to the Asian 
shores are the large islands of Lemnos, Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and 
Rhodes. In the Mediterranean, midway between Greece and Egypt, 
is the large island of Crete, noted in legend for its Labyrinth and 
its legislator Minos. To the west of Greece lie the Ionian Islands, 
the largest of which was called Corcyra, now Corfu. The rugged 
island of Ithaca was the birthplace of Odysseus (Ulysses), the 
hero of the Odyssey. 

113. Influence of the Land upon the People. — The physical 
geography of a country has much to do with molding the char- 
acter and shaping the history of its people. Mountains, isolating 
neighboring communities, foster the spirit of local patriotism ; 
the sea, inviting abroad and rendering intercourse with distant 
countries easy, awakens the spirit of adventure and develops 
commercial enterprise. 



THE HELLENES 75 

Now Greece is at once a mountainous and a maritime country. 
Mountain walls fence it off into a great number of isolated dis- 
tricts, and this is one reason probably why the Greeks formed so 
many small independent states, and never could be brought to 
feel or to act as a single nation. 1 

The Grecian peninsula is, moreover, by deep arms and bays of 
the sea, converted into what is in effect an archipelago. Few 
spots in Greece are over forty miles from the sea. Hence its 
people were early tempted to a seafaring life, — tempted to follow 
what Homer calls the "wet paths " of Ocean, to see whither they 
might lead. Intercourse with the old civilizations of the Orient, 
which Greece faces, 2 stirred the naturally quick and versatile 
Greek intellect to early and vigorous thought. The islands strewn 
with seeming carelessness through the yEgean Sea were " stepping- 
stones," which invited intercourse between the settlers of Greece 
and the inhabitants of the delightful coast countries of Asia Minor, 
and thus blended the life and history of the opposite shores. 

How much the sea did in developing enterprise and intelli- 
gence in the cities of the maritime districts of Greece is shown 
by the contrast which the advancing culture of these regions pre- 
sented to the lagging civilization of the peoples of the interior 
districts ; as, for instance, those of Arcadia. 

114. The Hellenes. — The historic inhabitants of the land we 
have described were called by the Romans Greeks ; but, as 
we have already learned, they called themselves Hellenes, from 
their fabled ancestor Hellen. They were divided into four fami- 
lies or tribes, — the Achaeans, the Ionians, the Dorians, and the 
^Eolians. 

The Achaeans are represented by the Greek legends as being the 
dominant race in the Peloponnesus in prehistoric times. They 

1 The history of the cantons of Switzerland affords a somewhat similar illustration 
of the influence of the physical features of a country upon the political fortunes of its 
inhabitants. But we must be careful not to exaggerate the influence of geography 
upon Greek history. For the root of feelings and sentiments which were far more 
potent than geographical conditions in keeping the Greek cities apart, see sec. 123. 

2 That is to say, the most and best of her harbors are on her eastern shore. 
Greece thus turns her back, as it were, to Italy (compare sec. 285). 



j6 THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 

then overshadowed to such a degree all the other tribes as to cause 
their name to be frequently used for the Greeks in general. 

The Ionians were a many-sided, enterprising people, who, 
speaking broadly, were given to trade and commerce, and lived 
much upon the sea. They attained unsurpassed excellence in 
art, literature, and philosophy. The most noted Ionian city was 
Athens, whose story is a large part of the history of Hellas. 

The Dorians, in their typical communities, present themselves 
to us as a conservative, practical, and unimaginative race. Their 
speech and their art were both alike without ornament. Their 
education was almost wholly gymnastic and military. The most 
important city founded by them was Sparta, the rival of Athens. 

The Cohans formed a rather ill-defined division. In historic 
times the name is often made to include all Hellenes not enu- 
merated as Ionians or Dorians. 

These several tribes, united by bonds of language and religion, 
always regarded themselves as members of a single family. They 
were proud of their ancestry, and were as exclusive almost as 
the Hebrews. All non-Hellenic people they called Barbarians? 

References. — Curtius, 4 vol. i, pp. 9-46. Grote (ten-volume ed.), vol.ii, 
pp. 141-163. Abbott, vol. i, chaps, i and ii. Holm, vol. i, chaps, ii and 
xiv. Tozer, H. F., Classical Geography (Primer). Richardson, R. B., 
Vacation Days in Greece. Dr. Richardson was for many years Director of 
the American School of Archaeology at Athens. His delightful sketches 
of excursions to interesting historical sites will give a better idea of the 
physical features of Greece than all the formal descriptions of the geog- 
raphers. Butcher, S. H., Some Aspects of the Greek Genius; for the 
mature student. 

Topics for Class Reports. — I. Greece as Europe in miniature. 2. Char- 
acteristics of the Greeks. See Butcher. 

3 At first this term meant scarcely more than " unintelligible folk " ; but later it 
came to express aversion and contempt. 

4 We shall throughout cite the extended histories of Greece and of Rome by 
giving merely the author's name with volume and chapter or page. 





: ■. ■ ■ ASv. ' I'ViltJl' 1 ^. ■':!:' '' ■ '■ ■,:'.-' - -.v.'.. 




Fig. 38. — Combat between Achilles and Hector. (From a vase) 

CHAPTER XI 
PREHISTORIC TIMES ACCORDING TO GREEK ACCOUNTS 1 

115. Character of the Legends. — The real history of the Greeks 
does not begin before the eighth c entury B.C. All that lies back 
of that date is an inseparable mixture of myth, legend, and fact. 
Yet this shadowy period forms the background of Greek history, 
and we cannot understand the Greeks of historic times without 
some knowledge, at least, of what they believed their ancestors 
did and experienced, for these beliefs greatly influenced their con- 
duct. What has been said of the war against Troy, namely, " If 
not itself a fact, the Trojan War became the cause of innumerable 
facts," is true of the whole body of Greek legends. These tales 
were recited by the historian, dramatized by the tragic poet, cut 
in marble by the sculptor, and depicted by the painter on the 
walls of portico and temple. They thus constituted a very vital 
part of the education of every Greek and afforded the inspiration 
of many a great and worthy deed. 

Therefore, as a sort of prelude to the story we have to tell, we 
shall repeat some of the legends of the Greeks touching their 
foretime. But it must be carefully borne in mind that these 
legends are not history. Where, however, there seems to be suffi- 
cient ground to justify an opinion, we shall suggest what may be 

1 The prehistoric period in Greece is now commonly designated as the Mycencean 
Age, for the reason that Mycenae in Argolis was formerly believed to have been the 
center of the brilliant Bronze Age culture which characterized the second millen- 
nium B.C. in the /Egean lands. Recent discoveries in Crete, however, suggest the 
possibility of that island having been the radiating point of this civilization. 

77 



78 PREHISTORIC GREECE 

the grain of truth in any particular legend, or what part of it may 
be a dim though confused remembrance of actual events. 

116. Oriental Immigrants. — The legends of the Greeks repre- 
sent the early growth of civilization among them as having been 
promoted by the settlement in Greece of Oriental immigrants, who 
brought with them the arts and culture of the East. Thus from 
Egypt, legend affirms, came Cecrops, bringing with him the arts, 
learning, and priestly wisdom of the Nile valley. He is repre- 
sented as the builder of Cecropia, which became afterwards the 
citadel of the illustrious city of Athens. From Phoenicia Cadmus 
brought the letters of the alphabet, and founded the city of Thebes. 

The nucleus of fact in these legends is probably this, — that the 
European Greeks received certain of the elements of their culture 
from the East. Without doubt they got from thence letters, a 
gift of incomparable value, and hints in art, besides suggestions 
and facts in philosophy and science. 

117. The Heroes : Heracles, Theseus, and Minos. — The Greeks 
believed that their ancestors were a race of heroes of divine or 
semi-divine lineage. Every tribe, district, city, and village even, 
preserved traditions of its heroes, whose wonderful exploits were 
commemorated in song and story. 

Heracles was the greatest of the national heroes of the Greeks. 
He is represented as performing twelve superhuman labors, and 
as being at last translated from a blazing pyre to a place among 
the immortal gods. The myth of Heracles is made up in part 
of the very same tales that were told of the Chaldean hero Gil- 
gamesh (sec. 55). Through the Phoenicians and the peoples of 
Asia Minor these stories found their way to the Greeks, who 
ascribed to their own Heracles the deeds of the Babylonian hero. 

Theseus, a descendant of Cecrops, was the favorite hero of 
the Athenians, being one of their legendary kings. Among his 
achievements were the slaying of the Minotaur, — a monster which 
Minos, king of Crete, kept in a labyrinth and fed upon youths 
and maidens sent from Athens as a forced tribute, — the defeat 
of the Amazons, and the consolidation of the twelve boroughs or 
hamlets of Attica into a single state. 



THE ARGONAUTIC EXPEDITION 



79 



The legend of Theseus doubtless contains a substantial kernel 
of history. The consolidation of Attica and the founding of 
Athens were certainly historical events, while the slaying of the 
Minotaur may be taken to symbolize the freeing of the Athenians 
from a tribute paid to the kings of Crete. 

Minos, who has just been mentioned as the king of Crete, was 
made by tradition a legislator of divine wisdom, the suppressor of 
piracy in the Grecian seas, and the founder of the first great 
maritime state of Hellas. This legend preserves the memory of a 




.■ -..^iiLn'.^rr;. . .: ; !./lh ■^^. iiTjsin^iniuiailUJ'UrrmiUllU MiiinMliur!:lfi:i:r i. 1 '::..::,:^^j v -,'Nr:ni;MHlltll!!!ltl 

Battle between Greeks and Amazons 
(From a sarcophagus) 

Cretan kingdom which recent discoveries have proved was great 
and powerful as early as the seventeenth century B.C. 2 

118. The Argonautic Expedition. — Besides the labors and ex- 
ploits of single heroes, such as we have been naming, the legends 
of the Greeks tell of various memorable enterprises which were 
conducted by bands of heroes. Among these were the Argonautic 
Expedition and the Siege of Troy. 

The tale of the Argonauts is told with many variations in the 
legends of the Greeks. Jason, a prince of Thessaly, with fifty 
companion heroes, among whom were Heracles, Theseus, and 
Orpheus, — the latter a musician of superhuman skill, the music 

2 The center of this early Cretan culture was Cnossus. Here have been unearthed, 
by Mr. A. J. Evans, the remains of a wonderful, many-chambered palace, which he 
believes to represent the Labyrinth of the tradition. 



80 PREHISTORIC GREECE 

of whose lyre moved trees and stones, — set sail in " a fifty-oared 
galley," called the Argo (hence the name Argonauts, given to 
the heroes), in search of a "golden fleece " which was fabled to 
be nailed to a tree and watched by a dragon in a grove on the 
eastern shores of the Euxine, — an inhospitable region of unknown 
terrors. The expedition was successful, and after many wonderful 
adventures the heroes returned in triumph with the sacred relic. 

Different meanings have been given to this tale. In its later forms 
we may believe it to commemorate the maritime activity of the 
Greeks of prehistoric times in the North ^Egean and the Black Sea. 

119. The Trojan "War (legendary date 11 94-1 184 B.C.). — The 
Trojan War was an event about which gathered a great circle of 
tales and poems, all full of an undying interest and fascination. 

Ilios, or Troy, was a strong-walled city which had grown up 
in Asia Minor just south of the Hellespont. The traditions tell 
how Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, visited the Spartan king 
Menelaus, and ungenerously requited his hospitality by secretly 
bearing away to Troy his wife Helen, famous for her rare, beauty. 

All the heroes of Greece flew to arms to avenge the wrong. 
Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and brother of Menelaus, was chosen 
leader of the expedition. Under him were the " lion-hearted 
Achilles" of Thessaly, the "crafty Odysseus," king of Ithaca, the 
aged Nestor, and many more, — the most valiant heroes of all 
Hellas. Twelve hundred galleys bore the gathered clans from 
Aulis across the ^Egean to the Trojan shores. For ten years the 
Greeks and their allies held in close siege the city of Priam. The 
place was at last taken through a device of the artful Odysseus, 
and was sacked and burned to the ground. 

There is probably a nucleus of fact in this, the most elaborate 
and interesting of the Grecian legends. We may believe it to be 
the dim recollection of a prehistoric conflict between the Greeks 
and the natives of Asia Minor, arising from the attempt of the 
former to secure a foothold upon the coast. That there really was 
in prehistoric times in the Troad a city which was the stronghold 
of a powerful and rich royal race has been placed beyond doubt 
by the excavations and discoveries of Dr. Schliemann and others. 




Fig. 40. — The Vaphio Cups and their Scrolls. (Cups from 
photographs ; the scrolls drawn from facsimiles of the cups) 

Found in a tomb at Vaphio, near Sparta, in 1889. " The finest product of the 
goldsmith's art left to our wondering eyes by the Achsean civilization of 
Greece" (Richardson). See p. 82, n. 3. 



82 



PREHISTORIC GREECE 



120. The Dorian Invasion, or the Return of the Heraclidae 

(legendary date 1104 B.C.). — Legend tells how Heracles, an 
Achaean, in the times before the Trojan War ruled over the 
Peloponnesian Achaeans. Just before that event his children were 
driven from the land. After a hundred years of exile the descend- 
ants of the hero returned at the head of the Dorians from North- 
ern Greece, conquered the greater part of the Peloponnesus, and 
established themselves as masters in the land that had formerly 
been ruled by their semi-divine ancestor. 

This legend seems to be a dim remembrance of a prehistoric 
invasion of the Peloponnesus by the Dorians from the north of 
Greece, and the expulsion or subjugation of the earlier Achaean 
population of the peninsula. 3 

121. Migrations to Asia Minor. — The Greek legends represent 
that the Dorian invasion of the Peloponnesus resulted in three 
distinct migrations from the mother land to the shores of Asia 
Minor and the adjoining islands. The northwestern shore of Asia 
Minor was settled mainly by ^Eolian emigrants from Boeotia. The 
coast to the south of the yEolians was occupied by Ionian emi- 
grants, who, uniting with their Ionian kinsmen already settled upon 

3 It is possible that the wonderful ruins and art relics found at Mycenae, Tiryns, 
and on other sites in the Peloponnesus are the memorials of a prehistoric civilization 
overwhelmed by the Dorian invasion. In 1876 Dr. Schliemann began excavations at 

Mycenae. The most interesting of his 
discoveries here were several tombs hold- 
ing the remains of nineteen bodies, which 
were surrounded by an immense number 
of articles of gold, silver, and bronze, — 
golden masks and 
breastplates, drink- 
ing cups of solid 
gold, bronze swords 
inlaid with gold and 
silver, and personal 
ornaments of every 
kind. There was 
one hundred pounds 
in weight of gold 

articles alone. This discovery is declared by Professor Manatt to be " the crowning 
historical revelation of our time." It assures us at least that the ancient legends, in 
so far as they represent Mycenae as having been in early pie-Dorian times the seat 
of an influential and wealthy royal race, rest on a basis of actual fact. 




Fig. 41. — Inlaid Sword Blades 
found at Mycenae 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 83 

that shore, built up twelve splendid cities (Ephesus, Miletus, etc.), 
which finally united to form the celebrated Ionian Confederacy. 
South of the Ionians, the Dorians established their colonies. They 
also settled the important islands of Cos and Rhodes, and con- 
quered and colonized Crete. 

These traditions doubtless preserve the memory of a great shift- 
ing of the population of Greece caused by the incoming of the 
conquering Dorian race. With these migrations to the Asiatic 
shores the legendary age of Greece comes to an end. From this 
time forward we tread upon fairly firm historical ground. 

References. — After the Iliad and Odyssey (Bryant's translation), the 
following works will be found useful in the present connection. Curtius, 
vol. i, pp. 47-78. Grote (ten-volume ed.), vol. i, pp. 309-469. Abbott, 
vol. i, chap, v; on the Homeric poems and the Homeric society. Holm, 
vol. i, chaps, iii-x. Church, A. ]., Stories from Homer and Greek Story and 
Song ; and Zimmern, H., Old Tales from Greece, are for youthful readers. 
Gayley, C. M., Classic Myths in English Literature, chaps, xvii— xxvii. 

For archaeological matters : Schliemann, H., Troy and its Remains 
(1875) ; Mycence (1878) ; Ilios (1SS1) ; Troja (1884) ; and Tiryns (1885). For 
an admirable summary of all these works of Dr. Schliemann's, see Schuch- 
HARDT, C, Schliemanri's Excavations. Diehl, C, Excursions in Greece ; an 
account of the results of excavations at Mycenae, Tiryns, and on other sites 
in Greece. Gardner, P., New Chapters in Greek History, chaps, i-v; 
compares the Greek legends with recent archaeological discoveries and 
discusses the question whether or not these discoveries may be regarded as 
a verification in any degree of the legends. Tsountas, C, and Manatt, 
J. I., The Mycenczan Age. HALL, H. R. H., The Oldest Civilization of 
Greece. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Schliemann's excavations at Mycenae. 

2. The centers and the character of the culture of the Mycenaean Age. 

3. The shield of Achilles. 4. The exploits of Perseus. 



*'^m n 



liMfSp; ■<■<•■•• >«,-.'-.' 



Fig. 42. — Hissarlik, the Probable Site of Anclent Troy 
(From a photograph) 



CHAPTER XII 
THE INHERITANCE OF THE HISTORIC GREEKS 

122. The City-State. — In this chapter we shall give a short 
account of the political and religious institutions, of the language 
and literature of the Greeks, at the dawn of history. These 
things were their heritage from prehistoric times. 

The light that falls upon Greece about the seventh century B.C. 
shows the land filled with cities. It is of these cities that we must 
first say a word, for it is with them — with cities — that Greek 
history has to do. In the first place, each of these cities was 
independent and self-governed, like a modern nation. It was a 
city-state. It made war and peace and held diplomatic relations 
with its neighbors. Its citizens were aliens in every other city. 

In the second place, these city-states were, as we think of 
independent states, very small. In most cases each consisted 
of nothing more than a single walled town with a little circumja- 
cent farming or pasture land. Sometimes, however, the city-state 
embraced, besides the central town, a large number of smaller 
places. Thus the city-state of Athens included all Attica with its 
hundred or more villages and towns. In all other cases, however, 
the outlying villages, if any, were so close to the walled town that 
all their inhabitants, in the event of a sudden raid by enemies, 
could get to the city gates in one or two hours at most. 

In the third place, each of these early cities was made up of 
smaller bodies, — - clans (gentes), phratries, and tribes. Of these 
the smallest, that is the clan, was the most important. The mem- 
bers of the clan, which was simply the expanded family, were 
bound together not only by the ties of kinship but also by the 
ties of religion. All were the actual or reputed descendants of a 
common ancestor whom they worshiped as a sort of guardian 
divinity. It was only members of these clans who at first enjoyed 
the rights of citizenship. 



FEELING OF THE GREEK FOR HIS CITY 85 

123. Feeling of the Greek for his City. — ■ We cannot under- 
stand Greek history unless we get at the outset a clear idea of the 
feelings of a Greek towards the city of which he was a member. 
It was his country, the fatherland for which he lived and for which 
he died. Exile from his native city was to him a fate scarcely less 
dreaded than death. This devotion of the Greek to his city was the 
sentiment which corresponds to patriotism amongst us, only, being 
a narrower as well as a religious feeling, it was much more intense. 

It was this strong city feeling among the Greeks which pre- 
vented them from ever uniting to form a single nation. The 
history of Greece from first to last is, in general, the history of a 
great number of independent cities wearing one another out with 
their never-ending disputes and wars arising from a thousand and 
one petty causes of rivalry and hatred. But it was this very thing 
that made life in the Greek cities so stimulating and strenuous, 
and that developed so wonderfully the faculties of the Greek 
citizen. In a word, the wonderful thing which we call Greek civili- 
zation was the flower and fruitage of the city-state. 

124. Ideas of the Greeks respecting the System of the Universe. 
- — Forming another important element of the inheritance of the 
historic Greeks were their religious ideas and institutions. In 
speaking of these we shall begin with a word respecting their 
ideas in regard to the system of the universe. 

The Greeks supposed the earth to be, as it appears, a plane, 
circular in form like a shield. Around it flowed the "mighty 
strength of the ocean river," a stream broad and deep, beyond 
which on all sides lay realms of Cimmerian darkness and terror. 
The heavens were a solid vault or dome, whose edge shut down 
close upon the earth. Beneath the earth, reached by subterranean 
passages, was Hades, a vast region, the realm of departed souls. 
Still beneath this was the prison Tartarus, a pit deep and dark, 
made fast by strong gates of brass and iron. 

The sun was an archer god, borne in a fiery chariot up and 
down the steep pathway of the skies. Naturally it was imagined 
that the regions in the extreme east and west, which were bathed 
in the near splendors of the sunrise and the sunset, were lands of 



86 THE INHERITANCE OF THE HISTORIC GREEKS 

delight and plenty. In the western region were the Isles of the 
Blest, the abodes of the shades of heroes and poets. 

125. The Olympian Council. — At the head of the Greek pan- 
theon there was a council of twelve members, comprising six gods 
and as many goddesses. The male deities were Zeus, the father 
of gods and men ; Poseidon, ruler of the sea ; Apollo, or Phoebus, 
the god of light, of music, and of prophecy; Ares, the god of 
war ; Hephaestus, the deformed god of fire, and the forger of the 
thunderbolts of Zeus ; Hermes, the wing-footed herald of the 
celestials, the god of invention and commerce. 

The female divinities were Hera, the proud and jealous queen 
of Zeus ; Athena, or Pallas, — who sprang full-grown from the 
forehead of Zeus, — the goddess of wisdom and the patroness of 
the domestic arts ; Artemis, the goddess of the chase ; Aphrodite, 
the goddess of love and beauty, born of the white sea foam ; 
Hestia, the goddess of the hearth ; Demeter, the earth mother, 
the goddess of grains and harvests. 1 

These great deities were simply magnified human beings. They 
surpassed mortals rather in power than in size of body. Their 
abode was Mount Olympus and the airy regions above the earth. 

126. The Delphian Oracle. — The most precious part perhaps 
of the religious heritage of the historic Greeks from the misty 
Hellenic foretime was the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. The Greeks 
believed that in the early ages the gods were wont to visit the 
earth and mingle with men. But even in Homer's time this famil- 
iar intercourse was a thing of the past, — a tradition of a golden 

1 Besides the great gods and goddesses that constituted the Olympian Council, 
there was an almost infinite number of other deities, celestial personages, and mon- 
sters neither human nor divine. Hades ruled over the lower realms ; Dionysus was 
the god of wine ; Eros, of love ; Iris was the goddess of the rainbow, and the special 
messenger of Zeus ; Hebe (goddess) was the cupbearer of 'the celestials ; the goddess 
Nemesis was the punisher of crime, and particularly the queller of the proud and 
arrogant ; jEolus was the ruler of the winds, which he confined in a cave secured by 
mighty gates. There were nine Muses, inspirers of art and song. The Nymphs 
were beautiful maidens, who peopled the woods, the fields, the rivers, the lakes, and 
the ocean. Three Fates allotted life and death, and three Furies (Eumenides, or 
Erinnyes) avenged crime, especially murder and sacrilegious crimes. Besides these 
there were the Centaurs, the Cyclopes, the Harpies, the Gorgons, and a thousand 
others. 



2 



THE OLYMPIAN GAMES 87 

age that had passed away. In historic times, though the gods 
often revealed their will and intentions through signs and portents, 
still they granted a more special communication of counsel 
through what were known as oracles. These communications, it 
was believed, were made sometimes by Zeus, 2 but more commonly 
by Apollo. Not everywhere, but only in chosen places, did these 
gods manifest their presence and communicate the divine will. 
These favored spots were called oracles, as were also the responses 
there received. 

The most renowned of the Greek oracles, as we have intimated, 
was that at Delphi, in Phocis. Here, from a deep fissure in the 
rocks, arose stupefying vapors, which were thought to be the 
inspiring breath of Apollo. Over this spot was erected a temple 
in honor of the Revealer. The communication was generally 
received by the Pythia, or priestess, seated upon a tripod placed 
above the orifice. As she became overpowered by the vapors, she 
uttered the message of the god. These mutterings of the Pythia 
were taken down by attendant priests, interpreted, and written in 
hexameter verse. Some of the responses of the oracle contained 
plain and wholesome advice ; but very many of them, particularly 
those that implied a knowledge of the future, were made obscure 
and ingeniously ambiguous, so that they might correspond with the 
event however affairs should turn. 3 

The oracle of Delphi gained a celebrity wide as the world. It 
was often consulted by the monarchs of Asia and the people of 
Rome in times of extreme danger and perplexity. Among the 
Greeks scarcely any undertaking was entered upon without the 
will and sanction of the oracle being first sought. 

127. The Olympian Games. — Another of the most characteristic 
of the religious institutions of the Greeks which they inherited 
from prehistoric times was the sacred games celebrated at Olym- 
pia m_EHs, in honor of the Olympian Zeus. The origin of this 

2 The oracle of Zeus of widest repute was that at Dodona, in Epirus, where the 
priests listened for the voice of the god in the rustling leaves of the sacred oak. 

3 Thus Crcesus at the time he made war on Cyrus (sec. 88) was told in response 
to his inquiry that if he undertook the war he would destroy a great empire. He 
did, indeed, — but the empire was his own. 



88 THE INHERITANCE OF THE HISTORIC GREEKS 

festival is lost in the obscurity of tradition ; but by the opening 
of the eighth century B.C. it had assumed national importance. 
In 776 B.C. a contestant named Coroebus was victor in the foot 
race at Olympia, and as from that time the names of the victors 
were carefully registered, that year came to be used by the Greeks 
as the starting point in their chronology. The games were held 
every fourth year, and the interval between two successive festivals 
was known as an Olympiad. 

The contests consisted of foot races, boxing, wrestling, and 
other athletic games. Later, chariot racing was introduced, and 
became the most popular of all the contests. The competitors 
must be of Hellenic race ; must have undergone special training 
in the gymnasium ; and must, moreover, be unblemished by any 
crime against the state or sin against the gods. Spectators from 
all parts of the world crowded to the festival. 

The victor was crowned with a garland of sacred olive ; heralds 
proclaimed his name abroad ; his native city received him as a 
conqueror, sometimes through a breach made in the city walls; 
his statues, executed by eminent artists, were erected at Olympia 
and in his own city; and poets and orators vied with the artist in 
perpetuating his name and triumphs as the name and triumphs of 
one who had reflected immortal honor upon his native state. 

128. The Pythian, the Nemean, and the Isthmian Games. — 
Besides the Olympian games there were transmitted from pre- 
historic times the germs at least of three other national festivals. 
These were the Pythian, held in honor of Apollo, near his shrine 
and oracle at Delphi ; the Nemean, celebrated in honor of Zeus, 
at Nemea, in Argolis ; and the Isthmian, observed in honor of 
Poseidon, on the Isthmus of Corinth. Just when these festivals 
had their beginnings it is impossible to say, but by the time the 
historic period had fairly opened, that is to say, by the sixth cen- 
tury B.C., they had lost their local and assumed a national charac- 
ter, and were henceforth to be prominent features of the common 
life of the Greek cities. 

129. Influence of the Grecian Games. — For more than a thou- 
sand years these national festivals, particularly those celebrated 







THE AMPHICTYONIC COUNCIL 89 

at Olympia, exerted an immense influence upon the social, reli- 
gious, and literary life of Hellas. They enkindled among the 
widely scattered Hellenic states and colonies a common literary 
taste and enthusiasm ; for into all the four great festivals, save the 
Olympian, were introduced, sooner or later, contests in poetry, 
oratory, and history. During the festivals, poets and historians 
read their choicest productions, and artists exhibited their master- 
pieces. The extraordinary honors accorded to the victors stimu- 
lated the contest- 
ants to the utmost, 
and strung to the 
highest tension 
every power of 
body and mind. 

Particularly 
were the games 

promotive of 

, . Fig. 4^5. — Greek Runners 

sculpture, since 

they afforded the sculptor living models for his art (sec. 244). 
" Without the Olympic games," says Holm, " we should never 
have had Greek sculpture." They also promoted intercourse be- 
tween the Grecian cities and kept alive common Hellenic feelings 
and sentiments. In all these ways, though they never drew the 
states into a common political union, they impressed a common 
character upon their social, intellectual, and religious life. 4 

130. The Amphictyonic Council. — Closely connected with the 
religious festivals were the so-called Ainphictyonies, or " leagues 
of neighbors," which formed another important part of the bequest 
from the legendary age to historic Greece. These were asso- 
ciations of a number of cities or tribes for the celebration of 
religious rites at some shrine, or for the protection of some par- 
ticular temple. 

Preeminent among all such unions was that known as the 
Delphic Amphictyony, or simply The Amphictyony. This was a 

4 The Olympian games, after having been suspended since the fourth century of 
our era, were revived, with an international character, in 1896, at Athens. 



go THE INHERITANCE OF THE HISTORIC GREEKS 

league of twelve of the sub-tribes of Hellas, whose main object 
was the protection of the oracle at Delphi. Another of its pur- 
poses was, by humane regulations, to mitigate the cruelties of war. 
The following oath was taken by the members of the league : 
" We will not destroy any Amphictyonic town, nor cut it off from 
running water, in war or in peace ; if any one shall do so, we will 
march against him and destroy his city." This was one of the 
first steps taken in the practice of international law. 

The Amphictyons waged in behalf of the Delphic god Apollo 
a number of crusades, or sacred wars. The first of these was 
carried on against the Phocian towns of Crissa and Cirrha (about 
595—586 B.C.), whose inhabitants had been guilty of annoying the 
pilgrims on their way to the shrine. The cities were taken and 
leveled to the ground. Their lands were also consecrated to the 
gods, which means that they were never thereafter to be plowed 
or planted, or in any way devoted to secular use. 

131. The Greek Language. — One of the most wonderful things 
which the Greeks brought out of their dim foretime was their 
language. At the beginning of the historic period it was already 
one of the richest and most perfectly elaborated languages ever 
spoken by human lips. Through what number of centuries it was 
taking form upon the lips of the forefathers of the historic Greeks, 
we can only vaguely imagine. It bears testimony to a long period 
of Hellenic life lying behind the historic age in Hellas. 

132. The Mythology of the Greeks. — Another wonderful pos- 
session of the Greeks when they first appeared in history was 
their mythology. All races in the earlier stages of their develop- 
ment are "myth-makers," but no race has ever created such a 
rich and beautiful mythology as did the ancient Greeks, and this 
for the reason that no other race was ever endowed with so fertile 
and lively an imagination. Respecting the great influence of 
these myths and legends upon the life and thought of the historic 
Greeks we have already spoken (sec. 115). 

133. The Homeric Poems. — The rich and flexible language of 
the Greeks had already in prehistoric times been wrought into 
epic poems of incomparable beauty and perfection. These epics 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



91 



transmitted from the Greek foretime and known as the " Homeric 
poems" consist of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Neither their 
"exact date nor their authorship is known (sec. 253). That they 
were the prized possession of the Greeks at the beginning of the 
historical period is all that it is important for us to note here. 
They were a sort of Bible to the Greeks, and exercised an incal- 
culable influence not only upon the religious but also upon the 
literary life of the entire H elleni c world. 

References.- — Curtius, vol. ii, pp. i-m. Grote (ten-volume ed.), 
vol. ii, pp. 164-194; vol. iii, pp. 276-297. Holm, vol. i, chaps, i, xi, and xix. 
Coulanges, Fustel de, The Ancient City, bks. i-iii. Fowler, W. W., 
The City-State of the Greeks and Romans, chaps, i-iii. Richardson, R. B., 
Vacation Days in Greece, " Delphi, the Sanctuary of Greece," and " Dodona." 
Gardner, P., New Chapters in Greek History, chap, ix, " Olympia and the 
Festivals," and chap, xiii, " Eleusis and the Mysteries." 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Religion as the organizer of the ancient 
city-state. See Coulanges and Fowler. 2. The story of Demeter and Per- 
sephone. 3. The Eleusinian mysteries. 4. The Olympian games. 




The World according to Homer 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE GROWTH OF SPARTA 

134. Situation of Sparta. — Sparta was one of the cities of 
the Peloponnesus which owed their origin or importance to the 
Dorian Invasion (sec. 120). It was situated in the deep valley 
of the Eurotas, in Laconia, and took its name Sparta (sown land) 
from the circumstance that it was built upon tillable ground, 



. 










■y\ 


ftiii^fcfe' IK 


Pli 


^-'"aSt^-^S.^.^ 




'- - iiJliPIH'-"' 5-*" 


7*f~°" 


■' r - 


risrr*- -"ffflfcb"- 




DJ"!''- r ^(SJli® 1 Ski i 


m£? r 










JWE3# 





Fig. 44. — Sparta, with the Ranges of the Taygetus in 
the Background. (From a photograph) 

whereas the heart and center of most Greek cities consisted of a 
lofty rock (the citadel or acropolis). But Sparta needed no citadel. 
Her situation, surrounded as she was by almost impassable moun- 
tain barriers, and far removed from the sea, was her sufficient 
defense. Indeed, the Spartans seem to have thought it unneces- 
sary even to erect a wall round their city, which stood open 
on every side until late and degenerate times. 

135. Classes in the Spartan State. — -The population of Laco- 
nia was divided into three classes, — Spartans, Perioeci, and Helots. 
The Spartans proper were the descendants of the conquerors of 

92 



THE LEGEND OF 'LYCURGUS 



93 



the country, and were Dorian in race and language. They com- 
posed but a small fraction of the entire population, at no period 
numbering more than ten thousand men capable of bearing arms. 

The Perioeci (dwellers around) were the subjugated natives. 
They are said to have outnumbered the Spartans three to one. 
They were allowed to retain possession of their lands, but were 
forced to pay tribute-rent, and in times of war to fight for the 
glory and interest of their Spartan masters. 

The third and lowest class was composed of serfs, called Helots. 
They were the property of the state, and not of the individual 
Spartan lords, among whom they were distributed by lot. They 
had no rights, practically, which their Spartan masters felt bound 
to respect. It is affirmed that when they grew too numerous for 
the safety of the state, their numbers were thinned by a deliberate 
massacre of the surplus population. 

136. The Legend of Lycurgus. — Of the history of Sparta before 
the First Olympiad weTiave~no certain knowledge. According 
to tradition, peace, prosperity, and rapid growth were secured 
through the adoption of a most remarkable political constitution 
framed by a great lawgiver named Lycurgus. 1 

It is probable that Lycurgus was a real person, and that he 
had something to do with shaping the Spartan constitution. But 
it is almost certain that he simply reformed a constitution already 
in existence ; for it is a proverb that constitutions grow and are 
not made. Circumstances, doubtless, were in the main the real 
creator of the peculiar political institutions of Sparta, — the cir- 
cumstances that surrounded a small band of conquerors in the 
midst of a large and subject population. 

137. The Spartan Constitution. — The so-called constitution 
of Lycurgus provided for two joint kings, a Senate of Elders, a 
General Assembly, and a sort of executive board composed of five 
persons called Ephors. 

The two kings corresponded in some respects to the two con- 
suls at Rome. One was a check upon the other. This double 
sovereignty worked admirably; for five centuries there was no 

1 The date of Lycurgus falls probably near the close of the ninth century B.C. 



94 THE GROWTH OF SPARTA 

successful attempt on the part of a Spartan king to subvert the 
constitution. The power of the kings, it should be added, came 
to be rather nominal than real, save in time of war. 

The Senate consisted of twenty-eight elders and the two kings. 
The duties of the body seem to have been both of a judicial and 
a legislative character. No one could become a senator until he 
had reached the age of sixty. 

The General Assembly was composed of all the citizens of 
Sparta over thirty years of age. By this body laws were made 
and questions of peace and war decided. In striking contrast to 
the custom at Athens, all matters were decided without general 
debate, only the magistrates and persons specially invited being 
allowed to address the assemblage. The Spartans were fighters, 
not talkers ; they hated windy discussion. 

The board of Ephors was composed, as we have noticed, of 
five persons, elected in some way not known to us. This body 
gradually drew to itself many of the powers and functions of the 
Senate, as well as much of the authority of the associate kings. 

138. Regulations as to Land, Trade, and Money.- — Plutarch 
says that Lycurgus, seeing that the lands had fallen largely into 
the hands of the rich, made a general redistribution of them, 
allotting an equal portion to each of the nine thousand Spartan 
citizens, and a smaller and less desirable portion to each of the 
thirty thousand Periceci. It is not probable that there ever was 
such an exact division of landed property. The Spartan theory, 
it is true, seems to have been that every free man should possess 
a farm large enough to support him without work, but as a matter 
of fact there existed, at certain periods at least, great inequality 
in landed possessions among the Spartans. In the fourth cen- 
tury, according to Plutarch, not more than one hundred of the 
citizens held any land at all. 

The Spartans were forbidden to engage in commerce or to 
pursue any trade ; all their time must be passed in the chase, or 
in gymnastic and martial exercises. Iron was made the sole 
money of the state. This money, Plutarch tells us, was so heavy 
that the amount needed to make a trifling purchase required a 



THE PUBLIC TABLES 95 

yoke of oxen to draw it. The object of Lycurgus in instituting 
such a currency was, we are told, to prevent its being used for 
the purchase of worthless foreign stuff. 2 

139. The Public Tables. — In order to correct the extrava- 
gance with which the tables of the rich were often spread, Lycur- 
gus is said to have ordered that all the citizens should eat at 
public and common tables. This was their custom, but Lycurgus 
could have had nothing to do with instituting it. It was part of 
their military life. 

Every citizen was required to contribute to these common 
meals a certain amount of flour, fruit, game, or pieces from the 
sacrifices. Excepting the Ephors, none, not even the kings, was 
excused from sitting at the common mess. One of the kings, 
returning from an expedition, presumed to dine privately with 
his wife, but received therefor a severe reproof. 

A luxury-loving Athenian once visited Sparta, and seeing the 
coarse fare of the citizens, which seems to have consisted in the 
main of a black broth, is reported to have declared that now he 
understood the Spartan disregard of life in battle : "Any one," 
said he, " must naturally prefer death to life on such fare as this." 

140. Education of the Youth. — Children at Sparta were regarded 
as belonging to the state. Every male infant was brought before 
the Council of Elders, and if it did not seem likely to become 
a robust and useful citizen, was exposed in a mountain glen. At 
seven the education and training of the youth were committed 
to the charge of public officers, called boy trainers. The aim of 
the entire course was to make a nation of soldiers who should 
contemn toil and danger and prefer death to military dishonor. 

The mind was cultivated only as far as might contribute to the 
main object of the system. Reading and writing were not taught, 

2 The real truth about this iron money is simply this: the conservative, non- 
trading Spartans retained longer than the other Grecian states the use of a primi- 
tive medium of exchange. Gold and silver money was not introduced into Sparta 
until about the close of the fifth century B.C., when the great expansion of her 
interests rendered a change in her money system absolutely necessary. In referring 
the establishment of the early currency to Lycurgus the Spartans simply did in this 
case just what they did in regard to their other usages. 



g6 THE GROWTH OF SPARTA 

and the art of rhetoric was despised. Only martial poems were 
recited. The Spartans had a profound contempt for the subtle- 
ties and literary acquirements of the Athenians. Spartan brevity 
was a proverb, whence our word laco?iic (from Laconia), meaning 
a concise and pithy mode of expression. At the public tables 
the boys were not permitted to speak until questioned ; they sat 
" silent as statues." As Plutarch puts it, " Lycurgus was for having 
the money bulky, heavy, and of little value ; and the language, 
on the contrary, very pithy and short, and a great deal of sense 
compressed in a few words." 

But while the mind was neglected, the body was carefully 
trained. In running, leaping, wrestling, and hurling the spear the 
Spartans acquired the most surprising nimbleness and dexterity. 
At the Olympian games Spartan contestants more frequently than 
any others bore off the prizes of victory. 

But before all things else was the Spartan youth taught to bear 
pain unflinchingly. At times he was scourged just for the purpose 
of accustoming his body to pain. Frequently, it is said, boys died 
under the lash without revealing their suffering by look or moan. 

Another custom tended to the same end as the foregoing usage. 
The boys were at times compelled to forage for their food. If 
detected, they were severely punished for having been so unskillful 
as not to get away. safely with their booty. This custom, as well 
as the fortitude of the Spartan youth, is familiar to all through the 
story of the boy who, having stolen a young fox and concealed 
it beneath his tunic, allowed the animal to tear out his vitals with- 
out betraying himself by the movement of a muscle. 

That the laws and regulations of the Spartan constitution were 
admirably adapted to the end in view, — the rearing of a nation 
of skillful and resolute warriors, — the long military supremacy of 
Sparta among the states of Greece abundantly attests. 

141. The Spartan Conquest of Messenia. — The most important 
event in Spartan history between the age of Lycurgus and the 
commencement of the Persian Wars was the long contest with 
Messenia, known as the First and Second Messenian Wars (about 
743-723 and 645-631 B.C.). The outcome of the protracted 



SPARTA BECOMES SUPREME 97 

struggle was the defeat of the Messenians and their reduction to 
the hard and bitter condition of the Helots of Laconia. Many 
of the nobles fled the country and found hospitality as exiles in 
other lands. Some of the fugitives conquered for themselves a 
place in Sicily and gave name and importance to the still existing 
city of Messana (Messina), on the Sicilian straits. 

Thus Sparta secured possession of Messenia. From the end of 
the Second Messenian War on to the decline of the Spartan power 
in the fourth century B.C., the Messenians were the serfs of the 
Spartans. All the southern part of the Peloponnesus was now 
Spartan territory. 

142. Sparta becomes Supreme in the Peloponnesus. — After 
Sparta had secured possession of Messenia, her influence and 
power advanced steadily until her leadership was acknowledged by 
all the other states of the Peloponnesus save Argos. The virtual 
management of the Olympian games, at Olympia, in Elis, was in 
her hands. Through these national festivals her. name and fame 
were spread throughout all Hellas. She now began to be looked to 
even by the Greek cities beyond the Peloponnesus as the natural 
leader and champion of the Greeks. 

Having now traced in brief outline the rise of Sparta to 
supremacy in the Peloponnesus, we must turn aside to take a 
wider look over Hellas, in order to note an expansion movement 
of the Hellenic race which resulted in the establishment of Hel- 
lenes upon almost every shore of the then known world. 

Selections from the Sources. — Plutarch, Life of Lycurgtis. Thu- 
CYDIDES, i. 10, beginning; ibid. 18, beginning. 

Secondary Works. — Curtius, vol. i, pp. 175-315. Grote (ten-volume 
ed.), vol. ii, pp. 259-377. Abbott, vol. i, chaps, v-viii. Holm, vol. i, 
chaps, xv-xvii. Allcroft, A. H., and Masom, W. F., Early Grecian His- 
tory, chaps, viii and xi. Oman, O, History of Greece, chaps, vii and viii. 
Greenidge, A. H. J., Handbook of Greek Constitutional History, chap, v, 
sees. 1-3. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Argos and King Pheidon. 2. Origin of 
the double sovereignty at Sparta. 3. The women of Sparta. 4. Legends 
of the Messenian Wars. 5. The Helots of Laconia. See Thucydides, iv. 80. 



CHAPTER XIV 
THE AGE OF COLONIZATION AND OF TYRANNIES 

I. The Age of Colonization (about 750-600 b.c.) 

143. Causes of Greek Colonization. — The latter half of the eighth 
and the seventh century b.c. constituted a period in Greek history 
marked by great activity in the establishment of colonies. One in- 
citing cause of this outward movement at this time was the politi- 
cal unrest which had come to fill almost all the cities of Greece. 
Oligarchies and tyrannies (sec. 152) had arisen, and the people 
oftentimes were oppressed. Thousands, driven from their homes, 
like the Puritans in the time of the Stuart tyranny in England, fled 
over the seas, and, under the direction of the Delphian Apollo, laid 
upon remote and widely separated shores the basis of " dispersed 
Hellas." The overcrowding of population and the Greek love of 
adventure also contributed to swell the number of emigrants. 

144. Relation of a Greek Colony to its Mother City. — The 
history of the Greek colonies would be unintelligible without an 
understanding of the relation in which a Greek colony stood to 
the city sending out the emigrants. There was a wide difference 
between Greek colonization and Roman. The Roman colony was 
subject to the authority of the mother city. 1 The Greek colony, 
on the other hand, was, in almost all cases, wholly independent 
of its parent city. The Greek mind could not entertain the idea 
of one city as rightly ruling over another, even though that other 
were her own daughter colony. 2 

But while there were no political bonds uniting the mother city 
and her daughter colonies, still the colonies were attached to 
their parent country by ties of kinship, of culture, and ,of filial 

1 In this respect the colonies of Rome resembled those of modern times. 

2 Besides the independent colonies, however, there was another class known as 
clernchies, over which the mother city retained full control. Such settlements, how- 
ever, were more properly garrisons than colonies, and were few in number. 

98 



'G 




GREECE 

AND THE 

GREEK COLONIES 

060100 200 300 400 50' 

Scale of Miles. 



Ionian 

Dorian I I 

Other Greek Baees ...O 

Phanician Settlements 
are underlined in Black 




fLiss, 

b Epidamnus^-> .^ 
(Ihjrrhachium) Vj°* 

Apolloma ^v 0l\alcidice ^«^ 
Olynt, 



■» Chiosy^ 
> o-riifo Samos 

J» tlDefta. ^.TlaSws 
oSparta . aBO 4, c= 







^r 



c<* 



3/ fc 



32 



28 



THE CHALCIDIAN COLONIES 99 

piety. The sacred fire on the altar of the new home was kindled 
from embers piously borne by the emigrants from the public hearth 
of the mother city, and testified constantly that the citizens of the 
two cities were members of the same though divided family. 

The feeling the colonists had for their mother city is shown by 
the names which they often gave to the prominent objects in and 
about their new home. Just as the affectionate memory of the 
homes from which they had gone out prompted the New England 
colonists to reproduce in the new land the names of places and 
objects dear to them in the old, so did the. cherished remem- 
brance of the land they had left lead the Greek emigrants to give 
to the streets and temples and fountains and hills of their new 
city the familiar and endeared names of the old home. 

145. The Chalcidian Colonies (about 750-650 B.C.). — An early 
colonizing ground of the Greeks was the Macedonian coast. Here 
a triple promontory juts far out into the y£gean. On this broken 
shore, Chalcis of Euboea, with the help of emigrants from other 
cities, founded so many colonies — thirty-two owned her as their 
mother city — that the land became known as Chalcidice. 

One of the chief attractions of this shore to the Greek colonists 
was the rich copper, silver, and gold deposits. The hills, too, 
were clothed with heavy forests which furnished excellent timber 
for shipbuilding, and this was an important item of export, since 
in many parts of Greece timber was scarce. 

146. Colonies on the Hellespont, the Propontis, and the Bosporus. 
— A second region full of attractions for the colonists of the 
enterprising commercial cities of the mother country was that 
embracing the Hellespont and the Bosporus, together with the 
connecting sheet of water known to the Greeks as the Propontis. 
These water channels, forming as they do the gateway to the 
northern world, early drew the attention of the Greek traders. 
Here was founded, among other cities, Byzantium (65 8 B.C.). The 
city was built, under the direction of the Delphian oracle, 3 on 

3 The managers of the oracle, doubtless through the visitors to the shrine, kept 
themselves informed respecting the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean, and 
thus were able to give good advice to those contemplating the founding of a new 
settlement. 



IOO THE AGE OF COLONIZATION 

one of the most magnificent sites for a great emporium that the 
ancient world afforded. It was destined to a long and checkered 
history, vl 

147. Colonies in the Euxine Region. — The tale of the Argo- 
nauts (sec. 118) shows that in prehistoric times the Greeks prob- 
ably carried on trade with the shores of the Euxine. The chief 
products of the region were fish, grain, and cattle, besides timber, 
gold, copper, and iron. 

Still another object of commerce was slaves. This region was 
a sort of slave hunters' land, — the Africa of Hellas. It supplied 
to a great degree the slave markets of the Hellenic world. In 
the modern Caucasian slave trade of the Mohammedan sultans 
we may recognize a survival of a commerce which was active 
twenty-five hundred years ago. 

Eighty colonies in the Euxine are said to have owned Miletus 
as their mother city. The coasts of the sea became so crowded 
with Greek cities, and the whole region was so astir with Greek 
enterprise, that the Greeks came to regard this quarter of the 
world, once looked upon as so remote and inhospitable, as almost 
a part of the home country. 

148. Colonies in Southern Italy. — At the same time that the 
tide of Hellenic migration was flowing towards the north it was 
also flowing towards the west. Southern Italy became so thickly 
set with Greek cities as to become known as Magna Grcecia, 
" Great Greece." Here were founded during the latter part of 
the eighth century B.C. the important city of Taras, the Taren- 
tum of the Romans (708 B.C.), and the ^olian city of Sybaris 
(721 B.C.), noted for the luxurious life of its citizens, whence our 
term Sybarite, meaning a voluptuary. 

Upon the western coast of the peninsula was the city of Cumse 
(Kyme), famed throughout the ancient world on account of its 
oracle and sibyl. This was probably the oldest Greek colony 
in Italy. 

The chief importance of the cities of Magna Graecia for civili- 
zation springs from their relations to Rome. Through them, with- 
out doubt, the early Romans received many primary elements of 



COLONIES IN SICILY AND IN SOUTHERN GAUL IOI 

culture, deriving thence probably their knowledge of letters as 
well as of Greek constitutional law (sec. 309). 

149. Colonies in Sicily and in Southern Gaul. — The island of 
Sicily is in easy sight from the Italian shore. About the same 
time that the southern part of the peninsula was being filled with 
Greek colonists, this island was also receiving a swarm of immi- 
grants. Here among other colonies was planted by the Dorian 
Corinth the city of Syracuse (734 B.C.), which, before Rome had 
become great, waged war on equal terms with Carthage. 




'. 



SP'Sl&tlllFiM; 






Fig. 45. — Ruined Temples at P^stum 

Paestum was the Greek Posidonia, in Lucania. These ruins form the most note- 
worthy existing monuments of the early Greek occupation of Southern Italy 

Sicily was the most disorderly and tumultuous part of Hellas. 
It was the " wild West" of the Hellenic world. It was the land 
of romance and adventure, and seems to have drawn to itself the 
most untamed and venturesome spirits among the Greeks. 

The coast of Gaul where the Rhone meets the sea was another 
region occupied by Greek colonists. A chief attraction here was 
the amber and tin brought overland from the Baltic and from 
Britain. Here were established several colonies, chief among 
which was Massalia (about 600 B.C.), the modern Marseilles. 

150. Colonies in North Africa and Egypt. — In the Nile Delta 
the Greeks early established the important station of Naucratis, 
which was the gateway through which Hellenic influences passed 
into Egypt and Egyptian influences passed out into Greece. 
Some time in the seventh century B.C., in obedience to the com- 
mands of the Delphian Apollo, they founded on the African 



102 THE AGE OF COLONIZATION 

coast the important colony of Cyrene, which became the metrop- 
olis of a large district known as Cyrenaica. 

151. Place of the Colonies in Grecian History. — The history of 
dispersed Hellas is closely interwoven with that of continental 
Hellas. In truth, a large part of the history of Greece would be 
unintelligible should we lose sight of Greater Greece, just as a 
large part of the history of Europe since the seventeenth century 
cannot be understood without a knowledge of Greater Europe. 
In colonial interests, rivalries, and jealousies we shall find the 
inciting cause of many of the contentions and wars between the 
cities of the home land. 

II. The Tyrannies (about 650-500 b.c.) 

152. The Character and Origin of the Greek Tyrannies. — The 

latter part of the period of Greek colonization corresponds very 
nearly to the so-called Age of the Tyrants, of whom a word must 
here be said. 

In the Heroic Age the preferred form of government among 
the Greeks was a patriarchal monarchy. The Iliad says, " The 
rule of many is not a good thing : let us have one ruler only, — 
one king, — him to whom Zeus has given the scepter." But by 
the dawn of the historic period, the patriarchal monarchies of the 
Achaean age had given place, in almost all the Grecian cities, to 
oligarchies or aristocracies. A little later, just as the Homeric 
monarchies had been superseded by oligarchies, so were these 
in many of the Greek cities superseded by tyrannies. 

By the term tyrannos (tyrant) the Greeks did not mean one 
who ruled harshly, but simply one who held the supreme author- 
ity in the state illegally. Some of the Greek tyrants were benefi- 
cent rulers, though too often they were all that the name implies 
among us. Sparta was almost the only important state which did 
not at one time or another fall into the hands of a tyrant. 

The so-called Age of the Tyrants lasted from about 650 to 
500 B.C., although we hear of tyrants ruling in some cities long 
before the earlier and in others long after the later date. 



THE GREEK FEELING TOWARDS THE TYRANTS 103 

The causes that led to the overthrow in so many cities of 
oligarchic rule and the establishment of government by a single 
person were various. A main cause, however, of the rise of 
tyrannies is found in the misrule of the nobles, into whose hands 
the royal authority of earlier times had passed. By their selfish, 
cruel, and arbitrary administration of the government they pro- 
voked the revolt of the people and invited destruction. 

Generally the person setting up a tyranny was some ambitious 
member of the aristocracy, who had held himself out as the 
champion of the people, and who, aided by them, had succeeded 
in overturning the hated government of the oligarchs. 

153. The Greek Feeling towards the Tyrants. — The tyrants sat 
upon unstable thrones. The Greeks, always lovers of freedom, had 
an inextinguishable hatred of these despots. Furthermore, the 
atrocious crimes of some of them caused the whole class to be 
regarded with the utmost abhorrence, — so much so that tyranni- 
cide, that is, the killing of a tyrant, came to be regarded by the 
Greeks as a supremely patriotic and virtuous act. Consequently 
the tyrannies were, as a rule, short-lived. They were usually vio- 
lently overthrown, and the old oligarchies reestablished, or de- 
mocracies set up in their place. Speaking broadly, the Dorian 
cities preferred aristocratic and the Ionian cities democratic 
government. 

154. Typical Tyrants. — Among the most noted of the tyrants 
were Pisistratus, at Athens, of whom we shall speak hereafter; 
Periander at Corinth (625-585 B.C.), who was a most cruel ruler, 
yet so generous a patron of artists and literary men that he was 
thought worthy of a place among the Seven Sages ; and Polycrates, 
tyrant of Samos (535-522 B.C.), who, with that island as a strong- 
hold and with a fleet of a hundred war galleys, built up a sort of 
maritime kingdom in the ^Egean, and for the space of more than 
a decade enjoyed such astonishing and uninterrupted prosperity 
that it was believed his sudden downfall and death — he was 
lured to the Asian shore by a Persian satrap, and crucified — were 
brought about by the envy of the gods, who the Greeks thought 
were apt to be jealous of over-prosperous mortals. 



104 THE AGE 0F COLONIZATION 

k 

155. Influence of the Tyrants upon Greek Civilization. — The 

rule of the tyrants conferred some undoubted benefits upon Greek 
civilization. Through the connections which the despots formed 
with foreign kings the isolation of the Greek cities was broken. 
Thus Pheidon of Argos — a tyrant of the better class — was in 
close relations with the Lydian kings, and Polycrates was the friend 
and ally of Amasis, king of Egypt. These connections between 
the courts of the tyrants and those of the rulers of Oriental coun- 
tries opened the cities of the Hellenic world to the influences of 
those lands of culture, widened their horizon, and enlarged the 
sphere of their commercial enterprise. 

Again, the tyrants were apt to be liberal patrons of art and lit- 
erature. Poetry and music flourished in the congenial atmosphere 
of their luxurious courts, while architecture was given a great 
impulse by the public buildings and works which many of them 
undertook with a view of embellishing their capitals, or of winning 
the favor of the poorer classes by creating opportunities for their 
employment. Thus it happened that the Age of the Tyrants was 
a period marked by an unusually rapid advance of many of the 
Greek cities in their artistic, intellectual, and industrial life. 

Selections from the Sources. — Herodotus, iv. 150-153 and 156-159; 
on the part taken by the Delphian oracle in the founding of Cyrene. Con- 
sult Index for stories of Cypselus, Polycrates, and Periander. 

Secondary Works. — Curtius, vol. i, pp. 432-500. Grote (ten-volume 
ed.), vol. hi, pp. 163-220 and 247-275. Abbott, vol. i, pp. 333-365. Holm, 
vol. i, chap. xxi. Cox, vol. i, pp. 141-183. Greenidge, A. H. J., Handbook 
of Greek Constitutional History, chap, hi, sec. 1. Bury, J. B., History of 
Greece, chap. ii. Allcroft, A. H., and Masom, W. F., Early Grecian His- 
tory, chap. vi. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The Delphian oracle and Greek coloniza- 
tion. 2. Life in the Greek colonies. 3. A comparison of Greek and Roman 
colonies. 4. Phalaris of Agrigentum. 5. The tyrants as patrons of religion, 
art, and literature. 




Fig. 46. — The Acropolis at Athens. (From a photograph) 



CHAPTER XV 



THE HISTORY OF ATHENS UP TO THE PERSIAN WARS 



156. The Attic People. — The population of Attica in historic 
times was essentially Ionian in race, but there were in it strains 
of other Hellenic stocks, besides some non-Hellenic elements as 
well. This mixed origin of the population is believed to be one 
secret of the versatile yet well-balanced character which distin- 
guished the Attic people above all other branches of the Hellenic 
family. 

157. The Site of Athens. — Four or five miles from the sea, a 
little hill, about one thousand feet in length and half as many in 
width, rises about one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the 
plains of Attica. The security afforded by this eminence doubt- 
less led to its selection as a stronghold by the early settlers of the 
Attic plains. Here a few buildings, perched upon the summit of 
the rock and surrounded by a palisade, constituted the beginning 
of the capital whose fame has spread over all the world. 

158. The Kings of Athens. — In prehistoric times Athens was 
ruled by kings, like all the other Grecian cities. The names of 
Theseus and Codrus are the most noted of the regal line. 

i°5 



106 EARLY HISTORY OF ATHENS 

To Theseus tradition ascribed the work of uniting the separate 
Attic villages or strongholds, twelve in number, into a single city- 
state. This prehistoric union, however or by whomsoever effected, 
laid the basis of the greatness of Athens. How much the union 
meant for Athens is shown by the history of Thebes. Although 
holding the same relation to Boeotia that Athens held to Attica, 
Thebes never succeeded in uniting the Boeotian towns into a single 
city-state, and consequently fretted away her strength in constant 
bickerings and wars with them. 

159. The Archons. — Codrus was the last hereditary king of 
Athens. His successor, elected by the nobles from the royal 
family, was simply ruler for life. There were twelve life kings, 
and then (in 752 b.c.) the authority of the regal office was still 
further diminished by limiting the rule of the king to ten years. 
Later the office was thrown open to all the nobles, and the term 
of office reduced to one year. As the power of the king was 
diminished, his old-time duties were assigned to magistrates chosen 
by the nobles from among themselves. The outcome of these 
changes was that a little after the opening of the seventh century 
we find a board of nine persons, called Archons, of whom the 
king in a subordinate position was one, standing at the head of 
the Athenian state. The old Homeric monarchy had become an 
oligarchy. 

160. The Council of the Areopagus and the General Assembly. 
— Besides the board of Archons there was in the Athenian state 
at this time a very important tribunal, called the Council of the 
Areopagus. 1 This council was composed exclusively of ex-Archons, 
and consequently was a purely aristocratic body. Its members 
held office for life. The duty of the council was to see that the 
laws were duly observed, and to judge and punish transgressors. 
There was no appeal from its decisions. This council was, at the 
opening of the historic period, the real power in the Athenian state. 

In addition to the board of Archons and the Council of the 
Areopagus, there is some evidence of the existence of a general 

1 So called from the name of the hill "Apetos 7ra7os, "Hill of Ares," which was 
the assembling place of the council. 



CLASSES IN THE ATHENIAN STATE 107 

assembly ('Ek/cA^o-ici, Eccksia), in which all those who served in 
the heavy-armed forces of the state had a place. 

161. Classes in the Athenian State. — The leading class in the 
Athenian state were the nobles, or Eupatrids. These men were 
wealthy landowners, a large part of the best soil of Attica, it is 
said, being held by them. 

Beneath the nobles we find the body of the nominally free 
inhabitants. Many of them were tenants living in a state little 
removed from serfdom upon the estates of the wealthy nobles. 
They paid rent in kind to their landlords, and in case of fail- 
ure to pay, they, together with their wives and children, might 
be seized by the proprietor and sold as slaves. Others owned 
their little farms, but at the time of which we are speaking 
had fallen deeply in debt. Thus because of their wretched 
economic condition, as well as because of their exclusion from 
the government, these classes among the common people were 
filled with bitterness towards the nobles and were ready for 
revolution. 

162. Draco's Code (621 B.C.). — It was probably to quiet the 
people and to save the state from anarchy 2 that the nobles at 
this time appointed a person named Draco, one of their own 
order, to write out and publish the laws. 3 

In carrying into effect his commission, Draco probably did little 
more than reduce existing rules and customs to a definite and 
written form. The laws as published were very severe. Death 
was the penalty for the smallest theft. This severity of the 
Draconian laws is what caused a later Athenian orator to say that 
they were written, " not in ink, but in blood." 

There was one real and great defect in Draco's work. He did 
not accomplish anything in the way of economic reform, and 

2 Taking advantage of the unrest in the state, Cylon, a rich and ambitious noble, 
had just made an unsuccessful attempt to seize the supreme power (the Rebellion of 
Cylon, 628 or 624*b.c). 

3 Up to this time the rules and customs of the city had been unwritten, and hence 
the Eupatrid magistrates, who alone administered the laws, could and often did 
interpret them unfairly in favor of their own class. The people demanded that the 
customs should be put in writing and published, so that every one might know just 
what they were (compare sec. 309). 



108 EARLY HISTORY OF ATHENS 

thus did nothing to give relief to those who were struggling with 
poverty and were the victims of the harsh laws of debt. 4 

163. The Reforms of Solon (594 B.C.). — The condition of the 
poorer classes grew more and more unendurable. Some radical 
measures of relief became necessary. Once more, as in the time 
of Draco, the Athenians resolved to place their laws in the hands 
of a single man, to be remodeled as he might deem best. Solon, 
a man held in high esteem by all classes, was selected to discharge 
this responsible duty. Solon turned his attention first to relieving 
the misery of the debtor class. He canceled all debts of every 
kind, both public and private. 5 Moreover, that there might never 
again be seen in Attica the spectacle of men dragged off in chains 
to be sold as slaves in payment of their debts, Solon prohibited 
the practice of securing debts on the body of the debtor. No 
Athenian was ever after this sold for debt. 

Such was the most important of the economic reforms of Solon. 
His constitutional reforms were equally wise and beneficent. The 
Ecclesia, or popular assembly, was at this time composed of all 
those persons who were able to provide themselves with arms and 
armor ; that is to say, of all the members of the three highest of 
the four propertied classes into which the people were divided. 
The fourth and poorest class, the Thetes, were excluded. Solon 
opened the Ecclesia to them, giving them the right to vote, but 
not to hold office. He also made other changes in the constitu- 
tion whereby the magistrates became responsible to the people, 
who henceforth not only elected them, but judged them in case 
they did wrong, p 

164. The Tyrant Pisistratus (560-527 B.C.). — The reforms 
of Solon naturally worked hardship to many persons. These 
became bitter enemies of the new order of things. Moreover, the 
reformed constitution failed to work smoothly. Taking advantage 
of the situation, Pisistratus, an ambitious noble, with a small force 

4 The authorities are not agreed as to whether or not Draco made any changes in 
the constitution. 

5 This is Aristotle's account of the matter {Athenian Constitution, ch. 6). Accord- 
ing to other accounts, Solon annulled only debts secured on land or on the person of 
the debtor. Solon also reformed the monetary system. 



EXPULSION OF THE TYRANTS FROM ATHENS 



109 



seized the Acropolis and made himself master of Athens. Though 
twice expelled from the city, he as often returned and reinstated 
himself in the tyranny. 

Pisistratus may be taken as a type of the better class of Greek 
tyrants. He gave Athens a mild rule, and under him the city 
enjoyed a period of great prosperity. He established religious 
festivals, adorned the city with 
splendid buildings, and is said also 
to have added to the embellishments 
of the Lyceum, a sort of public park 
just outside the city walls, which in 
after times became one of the favorite 
resorts of the poets, philosophersTand 
pleasure seekers of the capital. 

165. Expulsion of the Tyrants 
from Athens (510 B.C.). — The two 
sons of Pisistratus, Hippias and Hip- 
parchus, succeeded to his power. At 
first they emulated the example of 
their father, and Athens flourished 
under their rule. But at length an 
unfortunate event gave an entirely 
different tone to the government. 
Hipparchus having insulted a young 
noble named Harm odius , this man, 
in connection with his friend Aris- 
togiton and some others, planned to 
assassinate both the tyrants. Hipparchus was slain, but the plans 
of the conspirators miscarried as to Hippias. Harmodius was 
struck down by the guards of the tyrants, and Aristogiton was 
seized and put to death. 

We have already spoken of how tyrannicide appeared to the 
Greek mind as an eminently praiseworthy act (sec. 153). This is 
well illustrated by the grateful and venerated remembrance in 
which Harmodius and Aristogiton were ever held by the Athenians. 
Statues were raised in their honor (Fig. 47), and the story of their 




Fig. 47. — The Athenian 
Tyrannicides, Harmodius 
and Aristogiton 

Marble statues in the Naples 
Museum, recognized as ancient 
copies of the bronze statues set 
up at Athens in commemoration 
of the assassination of the tyrant 
Hipparchus 



HO EARLY HISTORY OF ATHENS 

deed was rehearsed to the youth as an incentive to patriotism and 
self-devotion. 

The plot had a most unhappy effect upon the disposition of 
Hippias. It caused him to become suspicious and severe. His 
rule now became a tyranny indeed. With the help of the Spar- 
tans he was finally driven out of the city. 

166. The Constitution of Clisthenes (508 B.C.). — Straightway 
upon the expulsion of Hippias there arose a great strife between 
the commons led by Clisthenes, who wished to conduct the gov- 
ernment on the lines drawn by Solon, and the nobles, who aimed 
at the restoration of the old aristocratic rule. The issue was the 
triumph of the popular party. The constitution was now put into 
the hands of Clisthenes in order that he might mold it into a 
form still more democratic than that given it by Solon. 

The most important of Clisthenes' measures was that by which 
he conferred Athenian citizenship upon all the free inhabitants of 
Attica? This was what we should call an extension of the fran- 
chise. The measure made such a radical change in the constitution 
in the interest of the masses that Clisthenes rather than Solon is 
regarded by many as the real founder of the Athenian democracy. 

167. Ostracism. — Among the other innovations or institutions 
of Clisthenes was the celebrated one known as ostracism. By 
means of this process any person who had excited the suspicions 
or displeasure of the people could, without trial, be banished from 
Athens for a period of ten years. Six thousand votes 7 cast against 
any person in a meeting of the popular assembly was a decree of 
banishment. The name of the person whose banishment was 

6 The population of Attica comprised originally four tribes (<f>v\ai.) In place of 
these (they were not dissolved but merely deprived of all political significance) 
Clisthenes formed ten new tribes in which he enrolled all the freemen of Attica, 
including, it would seem, resident aliens and emancipated slaves. These new tribes, 
which were practically geographical divisions of Attica, were each made up of a 
number of local subdivisions called dem.es, or townships. The demes constituting 
any given tribe were scattered about Attica. The object of this was to break up the 
old factions, and also to give each tribe some territory in or near Athens, so that at 
least some of its members should be within easy reach of the meeting place of the 
Ecclesia. 

7 Or possibly a majority of the votes cast in an assembly of not less than six- 
thousand citizens. The authorities are not clear. 



SPARTA OPPOSES THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY in 

sought was written on a shell or a piece of pottery, in Greek ostra- 
kon (oa-rpaKov), whence the term ostracism. 

The design of this institution was to prevent the recurrence of 
such a usurpation as that of Pisistratus. It was first used to get 
rid of some of the old friends of the ex-tyrant Hippias whom the 
Athenians distrusted. Later the vote came to be employed, as a 
rule, simply to settle disputes between rival leaders of political 
parties, and thus merely expressed political preference, the ostra- 
cized person being simply the defeated candidate for popular 
favor. No stigma or disgrace attached to him. 8 

168. Sparta opposes the Athenian Democracy. — The aristocratic 
party at Athens was naturally bitterly opposed to all these demo- 
cratic innovations. The Spartans also viewed with disquiet and 
jealousy this rapid growth of the Athenian democracy, and, invit- 
ing Hippias over from Asia, tried to overthrow the new govern- 
ment arid restore himto power. But they did not succeed in 
their purpose, because their allies refused to aid them in such 
an undertaking, and Hippias went away to Persia to seek aid of 
King Darius. We shall hear of him again. 

Selections from the Sources. — Plutarch, Life of Solon. Aristotle, 
Athenian Constittition, 13—19. 

Secondary Works. — Curtius, vol. i, pp. 316-431. Grote (ten-volume 
ed.), vol. ii, pp. 422-529 ; vol. iii, pp. 324-398. Abbott, vol. i, chaps, ix, 
xiii, xv. The accounts of the Athenian constitution in Curtius, Grote, and 
Abbott, which were written before the discovery of the Aristotelian treatise, 
must be read with caution and under the light of the new evidence. Holm, 
vol. i, chaps, xxvi-xxviii. Greenidge, A. H. J., Handbook of Greek Con- 
stitutional History, chap, vi, sees. 1-3. Bury, J. B., History of Greece, 
chap, iv, sec. iv ; and chap, v, sec. ii. Youthful readers will enjoy Har- 
rison, J. A., Story of Greece, chaps, xvi-xviii. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Legends of Solon. 2. The Alcmasonidae 
and the Delphian temple and oracle. 3. The constitution of Clisthenes. 
4. The story of Athena and Poseidon. 5. The rebellion of Cylon. 

8 The institution was short-lived. It was resorted to for the last time during the 
Peloponnesian War (418 B.C.). The people then, in a freak, ostracized a man, 
Hyperbolus by name, whom all admitted to be the meanest man in Athens. This, 
it is said, was regarded as such a degradation of the institution, as well as such an 
honor to the mean man, that never thereafter did the Athenians degrade a good man 
or honor a bad one by a resort to the measure. 




Fig. 48. — Greek Warriors preparing for Battle 



CHAPTER XVI 



THE PERSIAN WARS 

(SOO-479 B.C.) 

169. The Real Cause of the Persian Wars. — In a foregoing 
chapter we showed how the expansive energies of the Greek race, 
chiefly during the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., covered the 
islands and shores of the Mediterranean world with a free, liberty- 
loving, progressive, and ever-growing population of Hellenic 
speech and culture. The first half of the sixth century had barely 
passed before this promising expansion movement was first 
checked and then seriously cramped by the rise of a great despotic 
Asiatic power, the Persian Empire, whose steady encroachments 
upon the Greek cities threatened to leave the Greeks no standing 
room on the earth. Here must be sought the real cause of the 
memorable wars between Hellas and Persia. 

It will be recalled that the Persian Empire was founded by 
Cyrus the Great. Of his various conquests it concerns us here to 
note only that of the Lydian kingdom (sec. 88). Upon the down- 
fall of Croesus the Greek cities of the Asian coast which had 
formed part of his kingdom hastened to offer submission to the 
conqueror, asking that they be allowed to retain all the privileges 
which they had enjoyed under the Lydian monarchy. Cyrus 
refused their petition. Thereupon they closed their gates against 
him, and resolved to fight for their liberties. In a short time, 
however, all were reduced to submission. Many of the Ionians, 



THE REAL CAUSE OF THE PERSIAN WARS 113 

rather than live in Ionia as slaves, abandoned their old homes 
and sought new ones among the cities of dispersed Hellas. All 
the remaining inhabitants of the Asian Greek cities, together 
with those of the large islands of Chios and Lesbos, became sub- 
jects of the Persian king. Thus at one blow was the whole of the 
eastern shore of the ^Egean, the cradle and home of the earliest 
development in Greek poetry, philosophy, and art, lost to the 
Hellenic world. 

Under Cambyses, son and successor of Cyrus, the Persian 
authority was extended over Phoenicia, Cyprus, Egypt, and the 
Greek colonies of the African shore. This was another severe 
blow to Greek interests and Greek independence. The naval 
armaments of all these maritime countries were now subject to 
the orders of the Persian despot, and were ready to be turned 
against those of the Greeks still free. 

Then about the year 513 B.C. an immense Persian army, led 
by Darius I in person and aimed at the Scythians north of the 
Danube, invaded Europe. The outcome of this expedition was 
the addition of both Thrace and Macedonia, together with im- 
portant islands in the Northern ^Egean, to the Persian Empire, 
and in the advance of its frontier to the mountains which guard 
Greece on the north. 

The greater part of the shores of the ^Egean was now in the 
possession of the Great King. That sea which had so long been 
the special arena of Greek activity and Greek achievement had 
become practically a Persian lake. Moreover, through the loss 
of the Hellespontine regions the Greeks were cut off from the 
Euxine, which had come to be such an important part of the 
Hellenic world. It was indeed a critical moment in the history 
of the Greek race. 1 As Ranke says, " It cannot be denied that 
the energetic Greek world was in danger of being crushed in the 

1 At the same time that the Greeks of the Eastern Mediterranean were thus 
falling under the yoke of the Persians, the Greeks in Sicily were being hard pressed 
by another barbarian people, the Phoenicians. The power of Carthage was rising, 
and the Greek cities of Sicily were just now engaging in a doubtful contest with 
her for the possession of the island. Thus all round the horizon threatening clouds 
were darkening the once bright prospects of the Hellenic world. 



114 THE PERSIAN WARS 

course of its vigorous development." Out of this situation arose 
the so-called Persian Wars. 

170. The Ionian Revolt (500 B.C.). — The Greek cities reduced 
to servitude by Persia could neither long nor quietly endure the 
loss of their independence. In the year 500 B.C. Ionia became 
the center of a formidable rebellion against the Great King. The 
Athenians sent twenty ships to the aid of their Ionian kinsmen. 
Sardis was taken and burned (499 B.C.). Defeated in battle, the 
Athenians forsook their Ionian confederates and sailed back to 
Athens. 

This unfortunate expedition was destined to have tremendous 
consequences. The Athenians had not only burned Sardis, but 
" had set the whole world on fire." When the news of the affair 
reached Darius at Susa, he asked, Herodotus tells us, who the 
Athenians were, and being told, took his bow and shot an arrow 
upward into the sky, saying as he let fly the shaft, " Grant, O 
Zeus, that I may have vengeance on the Athenians." After this 
speech, he bade one of his servants every day repeat to him 
three times these words : " Master, remember the Athenians." 

Deserted by the Athenians, the only course left to the Ionians 
was to draw as many cities as possible into the revolt. In this they 
had great success. The movement became widespread and threat- 
ened the destruction of the Persian power in all those regions 
where its yoke had been laid upon the neck of once free Hellenes. 

The military resources of the Great King were now collected 
for the suppression of the formidable rebellion. The Persian 
land and sea forces closed in around Miletus. After a long siege 
the city was taken. The most of the men were slain, while the 
women and children were transported beyond the Euphrates. 
The remaining cities of Ionia shared the fate of Miletus. They 
were sacked and destroyed, and the fairest of the boys and 
maidens were carried off for the service of the Great King. Also 
all the Greek cities on the European side of the Hellespont were 
taken and burned. 

The first serious attempt of the enslaved Greeks to recover 
their lost freedom was thus suppressed. The eastern half of the 



FIRST EXPEDITION OF DARIUS 1 15 

Greek world, filled with the ruins of once flourishing cities, and 
bearing everywhere the cruel marks of barbarian warfare, lay 
again in vassalage to the Great King. " The mild Ionian heavens 
did their part to heal the wounds : the waste places were again 
in time built upon, and cities, such as Ephesus, bloomed again 
in great prosperity ; but as to a history of Ionia, that was for all 
time past " (Curtius). 

171. The First Expedition of Darius against Greece (492 B.C.). 
— With the Ionian revolt crushed and punished, Darius deter- 
mined to chastise the European Greeks, and particularly the 
Athenians, for giving aid to his rebellious subjects. A large land 
and naval armament was fitted out and placed under the com- 
mand of Mardonius, the son-in-law of Darius. The land forces 
suffered severe losses at the hands of the barbarians of Thrace, 
and the fleet was wrecked by a violent storm off Mount Athos, 
three hundred ships being lost (492 B.C.). 

172. Darius' Second Expedition (490 B.C.). — Undismayed by 
this disaster, Darius issued orders for the raising and equipping 
of another and stronger armament. Meanwhile he sent heralds 
to the various Grecian states to demand earth and water^which 
elements among the Persians were symbols of submission. The 
weaker states gave the tokens required ; but the Athenians 
and Spartans threw the envoys of the king into pits and wells, 
and bade them help themselves to what earth and water they 
wanted. 

By the beginning of the year 490 b*c, another Persian army 
of one hundred and twenty thousand men had been mustered for 
the second attempt upon Greece. This armament was intrusted 
to the command of the experienced generals Datis and Arta- 
phernes, but was under the guidance of the traitor Hippias 
(sec. 168). A fleet of six hundred ships bore the army from 
the coasts of Asia Minor over the ^Egean towards the Grecian 
shores. After receiving the submission of the most important of 
the Cyclades, and capturing and sacking the city of Eretria upon 
the island of Eubcea, the Persians landed at Marathon, barely 
one day's journey from Athens. 



Il6 THE PERSIAN WARS 

173. The Battle of Marathon (490 B.C.). — The Athenians 
made surpassing efforts to avert from their city the impending 
destruction. Instead of awaiting behind their walls the coming 
of the Persians, they decided to offer them battle in the open 
field at Marathon. Accordingly they marched out ten thousand 
strong. 

While the Athenians were getting ready for the fight, a fleet 
runner, Phidippides by name, was hurrying with a message to 
Sparta for aid. In just thirty-six hours Phidippides was in Sparta, 
which is one hundred and thirty-five or forty miles from Athens. 
Now it so happened that it lacked a few days of the full of the 
moon, during which interval the Spartans, owing to an old super- 
stition, dared not set out upon a military expedition. They 
promised aid, but moved only in time to reach Athens after all 
was over. 

The Plataeans, however, firm and grateful friends of the Athe- 
nians on account of the protection they had accorded them 
against the Thebans, no sooner had received their appeal for 
help than they responded to a man, and joined them at Mara- 
thon with a thousand heavy-armed soldiers. 

The battle was begun by the Athenians. The issue was for a 
time doubtful. Then the tide turned in favor of the Greeks, and the 
Persians were driven to their ships with great slaughter. Miltiades, 
the Athenian general who was in supreme command, at once dis- 
patched a courier to Athens with intelligence of the victory. The 
messenger reached the city in a few hours, but so breathless that, 
as the people thronged eagerly around him to hear the news he 
bore, he could merely gasp, "Victory is ours," and fell dead. 

After threatening Athens with attack, but finding the Athenians 
ready to receive them, the Persians sailed away for the Ionian 
shore. 

174. Results of the Battle of Marathon. — The battle of Mara- 
thon is justly reckoned as one of the "decisive battles of the 
world." It marks a turning point in the history of humanity. 
The battle decided that no longer the despotism of the East, 
with its repression of all individual action, but the freedom of 



THEMISTOCLES AND HIS NAVAL POLICY 117 

the West, with all its incentives to personal effort, should mark the 
"Tuture^centuries of history. The tradition of the fight forms the 
prelude of the story of human freedom and progress. 

Again, by the victory Hellenic civilization was saved to mature 
its fruit, not for Hellas alone but for the world. We cannot con- 
ceive what European civilization would be like without those rich 
and vitalizing elements contributed to it by the Greek, and espe- 
cially by the Athenian, genius. But the germs of all these might 
have been smothered and destroyed had the barbarians won the 
day at Marathon. Ancient Greece, as a satrapy of the Persian 
Empire, would certainly have become what modern Greece be- 
came as a province of the empire of the Ottoman Turks. 

The great achievement further inspired the Athenians with 
self-confidence. They did great things thereafter because they 
believed themselves able to do them. From the battle of Mara- 
thon dates the beginning of the great days of imperial Athens. -4- 

175. Themistocles and his Naval Policy; Aristides opposes him 
and is ostracized (483 B.C.). — Many among the Athenians were 
inclined to believe that the battle of Marathon had freed Athens 
forever from the danger of a Persian invasion. But there was at 
least one among them who was clear-sighted enough to see that 
that battle was only the beginning of a great struggle. This was 
Themistocles, a sagacious, farsighted, versatile statesman, who, in 
his own words, though " he knew nothing of music and song, did 
know how of a small city to make a great one." The policy he 
urged upon the Athenians was to strengthen their navy as the only 
reliable defense of Hellas against subjection to the Persian power. 

Themistocles was opposed in this policy by Aristides, called the 
Just, a man of the most scrupulous integrity, who feared that 
Athens would make a serious mistake if she converted her land 
force into a naval armament. The contention grew so sharp 
between the two that ostracism was called into use to decide the 
matter. Six thousand votes were cast against Aristides, and he 
was sent into exile. 

It is related that while the vote that ostracized him was being 
taken in the popular assembly, an illiterate peasant, who was a 



Il8 THE PERSIAN WARS 

stranger to Aristides, asked him to write the name of Aristides 
upon his tablet. As he placed the name desired upon the shell, 
the statesman asked the man what wrong Aristides had ever done 
him. " None," responded the voter; " I do not even know him ; 
but I am tired of hearing him called the Just." 

After the banishment of Aristides, Themistocles was free to 
carry out his naval policy without serious opposition, and soon 
Athens had the largest fleet of any Greek city, with a splendid 
harbor at Piraeus. 

176. Xerxes' Preparations to invade Greece. — As soon as news 
of the disaster at Marathon reached Darius he began preparations 
to avenge this second defeat and insult. In the midst of these plans 
for revenge, as we have already learned, death cut short his reign. 
His son Xerxes succeeded him, and pushed forward with energy 
the preparations already begun. For eight years all Asia was astir. 

While the land and sea forces were being gathered and equipped, 
gigantic works were in progress on the Thracian coast and on the 
Hellespont to insure the safety and facilitate the march of the 
coming hosts. It will be recalled that the expedition of Mardonius 
was ruined by the destruction of his fleet in rounding the promon- 
tory of Mount Athos (sec. 171). That the warships and transports 
of the present armament should not be exposed to the dangers of 
a passage around this projecting tongue of land, Xerxes ordered a 
canal to be dug across the neck of the isthmus. This great work 
consumed three years. Traces of the cutting may be seen to-day. 
At the same time Europe was being bound to Asia by a double 
bridge of boats across the Hellespont. This work was in the hands 
of Egyptian and Phoenician artisans. 

177. Disunion of the Greeks; Congress at Corinth (481 B.C.). 
— Startling rumors of what the Persians were doing were con- 
stantly borne across the ./Egean to the ears of the Greeks in 
Europe. Finally came intelligence that Xerxes was about to begin 
his march. Something must now be done. Mainly through the 
exertions of Themistocles, a council of the Greek cities was con- 
vened at Corinth in the fall of 481 B.C., but owing to feuds, jeal- 
ousies, and party spirit, only a small number of the states of Hellas 



THE PASSAGE OF THE HELLESPONT 119 

could be brought to act in concert. Argos would not join the 
proposed confederation through hatred of Sparta ; Thebes, through 
jealousy of Athens. The Corcyraeans promised to help, but they 
were not sincere. Gelo, the tyrant of Syracuse, offered to send 
over a large armament, provided he were given the chief command 
of the allied forces. His aid on such terms was refused. 

Thus, from different causes, many of the Greek cities held aloof 
from the league, so that only about fifteen or sixteen states were 
brought to unite their resources against the barbarians ; and even 
the strength of many of the cities that entered into the alliance 
was divided by party spirit. Furthermore, the Delphian oracle 
was wanting in courage, if not actually disloyal, and by its timid 
responses disheartened the patriotic party. 

The decision of the congress was that the first stand against the 
invaders should be made at the Pass of Thermopylae. The Spar- 
tans were given the chief command of both the land and the naval 
forces. The Athenians might fairly have insisted upon their right 
to the command of the allied fleet, but they patriotically waived 
their claim for the sake of harmony. 

178. The Passage of the Hellespont. — With the first indica- 
tions of the opening spring of 480 B.C., just ten years after the 
defeat at Marathon, the vast Persian army was astir and concen- 
trating from all points upon the Hellespont. The passage of this 
strait, as pictured to us in the inimitable narration of Herodotus, 
is one of the most dramatic of all the spectacles afforded by history. 
Herodotus affirms that for seven days and seven nights the bridges 
groaned beneath the living tide that Asia was pouring into Europe. 

Upon an extended plain called Doriscus, on the European 
shore, Xerxes drew up his vast army for review and census. 2 
The enumeration completed, the immense army, accompanied 
along the shore by the fleet, marched forward through Thrace, 
and so on toward Greece. 

2 According to Herodotus, the land and naval forces of Xerxes amounted to 
2,317,000 men, besides about 2,000,000 slaves and attendants. It is certain that 
these figures are a great exaggeration, and that the actual number of the Persian 
army could not have exceeded 600,000 men aside from attendants and camp 
followers. 



120 THE PERSIAN WARS 

179. The Battle of Thermopylae (480 B.C.). — Leading from 
Northern into Central Greece is a narrow pass, pressed on one 
side by the sea and on the other by rugged mountain ridges. At 
the foot of the cliffs break forth several hot springs, whence the 
name of the pass, Thermopylae, or Hot Gates. Leonidas, king 
of Sparta, with three hundred Spartan soldiers and about six 
thousand allies from different states, held the pass. As the Greeks 
were about to celebrate the Olympian games, which their religious 
scruples would not allow them to postpone, they left this little 
handful of men unsupported to hold in check the great army of 
Xerxes until the festival days were over. 

The Spartans could be driven from their advantageous position 
only by an attack in front, as the Grecian fleet prevented Xerxes 
from landing a force in their rear. Before attacking them, Xerxes 
summoned them to give up their arms. The answer of Leonidas 
was, "Come and take them." For two days the Persians tried to 
storm the pass. The Asiatics were driven to the attack by their 
officers armed with whips. But every attempt to force the way 
was repulsed ; even the Ten Thousand Immortals, the bodyguard 
of the Great King, were hurled back from the Spartan front like 
waves from a cliff. 

But an act of treachery on the part of a native Greek, Ephial- 
tes by name, " the Judas of Greece," rendered unavailing all the 
bravery of the keepers of the pass. A byway leading over the 
mountains to the rear of the Spartans was revealed to Xerxes. 
The startling intelligence was brought to Leonidas that the Per- 
sians were descending the mountain path in his rear. He saw 
instantly that all was lost. The allies were permitted to seek 
safety in flight while opportunity remained ; but for him and his 
Spartan companions there could be no thought of retreat. Death 
in the pass, the defense of which had been intrusted to them, was 
all that Spartan honor and Spartan law now left them. The next 
day, surrounded by the Persian host, they fought with desperate 
valor ; but, overwhelmed by mere numbers, they were slain to the 
last man. With them also perished seven hundred Thespians who 
had chosen death with their comrades. 



THE ATHENIANS ABANDON THEIR CITY 121 

The fight at Thermopylae echoed through all the after cen- 
turies of Grecian history. The Greeks felt that all Hellas had 
gained great glory on that day when Leonidas and his compan- 
ions fell, and they gave them a chief place among their national 
heroes. Memorial pillars marked for coming generations the 
sacred spot, while praising inscriptions and epitaphs told in brief 
phrases the story of the battle. Among these was an inscription 
in special memory of the Spartan dead, which, commemorating 
at once Spartan law and Spartan valor, read, " Stranger, go 
tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here in obedience to their 
commands ! " 3 

180. The Athenians abandon their City and betake themselves 
to their Ships. — Athens now lay open to the invaders. Counsels 
were divided. The Delphian oracle had obscurely declared, 
" When everything else in the land of Cecrops shall be taken, 
Zeus grants to Athena that the wooden walls alone shall remain 
unconquered, to defend you and your children." The oracle was 
believed to be, as was declared, " firm as adamant." 

But there were various opinions as to what was meant by the 
"wooden walls." Some thought the Pythian priestess directed 
the Athenians to seek refuge in the forests on the mountains; 
others, that the oracle meant they should defend the Acropolis, 
which in early times had been surrounded with a palisade ; but 
Themistocles (who it is thought may have himself prompted the 
oracle) contended that the ships were plainly indicated. 

The last interpretation was acted upon. All the soldiers of 
Attica were crowded upon the vessels of the fleet at Salamis. The 
aged men, with the women and children, were carried out of the 
country to different places of safety. All the towns of Attica, with 
the capital, were thus abandoned to the conquerors. A few days 
later the Persians entered upon the deserted plain, and burned 

3 While Leonidas and his men were striving to hold the pass, the Greek fleet, 
stationed at Artemisium at the head of the island of Euboea, was endeavoring to 
prevent the Persian fleet from entering the strait between the island and the mainland. 
For three days the Greeks fought here the Persian ships (the battle of Artemisium), 
and then, upon receipt of the news that the pass was lost, retreated down the Eubcean 
straits, and came to anchor in the gulf of Salamis, near Athens. 






12? THE PERSIAN WARS 

the empty towns. Athens shared the common fate and her tem- 
ples sank in flames. Sardis was avenged. 

181. The Naval Battle of Salamis (480 B.C.). — Just off the 
coast of Attica lies the island of Salamis. Here lay the Greek 
fleet, awaiting the Persians. Xerxes, deceived by Themistocles 
respecting the state of things among the Greek allies, ordered an 
immediate attack. From a lofty throne upon the shore he him- 
self overlooked the scene and watched the result. The Persian 
fleet was broken to pieces and two hundred of the ships destroyed. 4 

The blow was decisive. Xerxes, fearing that treachery might 
destroy the Hellespontine bridges, instantly dispatched a hundred 
ships to protect them ; and then, leaving Mardonius with three 
hundred thousand men to retrieve the disaster of Salamis, the 
monarch with a strong escort made a hasty retreat into Asia. 

182; Mardonius tries to bribe the Athenians; the Battle of 
Plataea (479 B.C.). — With the opening of the spring of 479 B.C., 
Mardonius sent an embassy to Athens, promising the Athenians 
many tilings provided they would come over to the Persian side. 
The Athenians' reply was, "While the sun holds his course in the 
heavens, we will never form a league with the Persian king." 

Upon receiving this answer Mardonius, breaking up his winter 
camp in Thessaly, marched south, and, after ravaging Attica anew, 
withdrew into Bceotia. Sitting down in a fortified camp near 
Thebes, he awaited the coming of the Greeks. Here the Greeks 
confronted him with the largest army they had ever gathered. 5 
In the memorable battle which followed, known as the battle of 
Plataea, Mardonius was slain and his army virtually annihilated. 

183. The Battle of Mycale (479 B.C.). — Upon the same day, 
according to tradition, that the Greeks won the great victory over 
the Persian army at Plataea, their allied fleet gained another over 
a combined land and sea force at Cape Mycale in Ionia. 

This victory at Mycale was a fitting sequel to the one at 
Platsea : that had freed European Greece from the presence of the 

4 The entire Persian fleet numbered about 750 vessels ; the Grecian, about 380 
ships, mostly triremes. 

5 There were 110,000 men, of which number 38,000 were hoplites. The Spartan 
Pausanias was in chief command. 









MEMORIALS AND TROPHIES OF THE WAR 123 

barbarians ; this, in the phrase of Herodotus, " restored to Grecian 
freedom the Hellespont and the islands." For straightway Samos, 
Chios, Lesbos, and other islands of the yEgean that had been in 
vassalage to Persia were now liberated, and received as members 
into the confederacy of the patriot states of the mother land. 6 

184. Memorials and Trophies of the War. — The glorious issue 
of the war caused a general burst of joy and exultation through- 
out Greece. Poets, artists, and orators all vied with one another 
in commemorating the deeds of the heroes whose valor had 
warded off the impending danger. 

Nor did the pious Greeks think that the marvelous deliverance 
had been effected without the intervention of the gods in their 
behalf. To the temple at Delphi was gratefully consecrated a 
tenth of the immense spoils in gold and silver from the field of 
Plataea ; and upon the Acropolis at Athens was erected a colossal 
statue of Athena, made from the brazen arms gathered from the 
field at Marathon, while within the sanctuary of the goddess were 
placed the broken cables of the Hellespontine bridges, at once a 
proud trophy of victory and a signal illustration of the divine 
punishment that had befallen the impious attempt of the bar- 
barians to lay a yoke upon the sacred waters of the Hellespont. 

Selections from the Sources. — ^Eschylus, The Persians ; an historical 
drama which celebrates the victory of Salamis. Plutarch, Life of Themis- 
tocles and Life of Aristides. 

Secondary Works. — Curtius, vol. ii, pp. 112-193, 209-238, and 271- 
331. Grote- (ten-volume ed.), vol. iii, pp. 492-521 ; vol. iv, pp. 102-201 
and 242-294. Abbott, vol. ii, pp. 74-139 and 175-205. Holm, vol. ii, 
chaps, i-iv. Cox, G. W., The Greeks and the Persians. Creasy, E. S., 
Decisive Battles of the World, chap, i, " The Battle of Marathon." Church, 
A. J., Pictures fro?n Greek Life and Story, chaps, iii-viii ; for youthful 
readers. Bury, J. B., History of Greece, pp. 223-241. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The Delphian oracle in the Persian 
Wars. 2. Themistocles. 3. Incidents of the battle of Salamis. 

6 On the very day of the battle of Salamis, according to tradition, Gelo, tyrant 
of Syracuse, gained a great victory over the Carthaginians under Hamilcar at the 
battle of Himera, in the north of Sicily. So it was a memorable day for Hellas in 
the West as well as in the East. 




CHAPTER XVII 
THE ATHENIAN SUPREMACY 

I. The Making of the Athenian Empire 
(479-445 b.c.) 

185. The Rebuilding of Athens ; the Fortifications of the 
Piraeus (478-477 B.C.). — After the battle of Platsea and the 
expulsion of the barbarians from Greece, the Athenians who had 
found an asylum at Salamis, ^Egina, and other places returned to 
Athens. They found only a heap of ruins where their city had 
once stood. Under the lead of Themistocles, the people with 
admirable spirit set themselves to the task of rebuilding their 
homes and erecting new walls. 

The rival states of the Peloponnesian League watched the pro- 
ceedings of the Athenians with the most jealous interest. The 
Spartans sent an embassy to dissuade them from rebuilding their 
walls, hypocritically assigning as the ground of their interest in 
the matter their fear lest, in case of another Persian invasion, 
the city, if captured, should become a stronghold for the enemy. 
But the Athenians persisted in their purpose, and soon had raised 
the wall to such a height that they could defy interference. 

At the same time that the work of restoration was going on at 
Athens, the fortifications at Pirseus were being enlarged and 
strengthened. That Athens' supremacy depended upon control 
of the sea had now become plain to all. Consequently the haven 
town was surrounded with walls even surpassing in strength the 
new walls of the upper city. The Piraeus soon grew into a bus- 
tling commercial city, one of the chief centers of trade in the 
Hellenic world. 1 

1 A few years after this Themistocles fell into disfavor and was ostracized 
(471 b.c). He finally bent his steps to Susa, the Persian capital. King Artaxerxes 
appointed him governor of Magnesia in Asia Minor and made provision for his 

124 



THE CONFEDERACY OF DELOS 125 

186. The Formation of the Confederacy of Delos (477 B.C.). — 
Soon after the battle of Mycale the Ionian states, in order that 
they might be able to carry on more effectively the work to 
which they had set their hands, namely, that of liberating the Greek 
cities yet in the power of the Persians, formed a league known as 
the_ Confederacy of Delos. Sparta and her Peloponnesian allies 
were excluded from the league on account of the treachery of the 
Spartan Pausanias, who had been in command of the allied fleet. 
All the Asian cities of Ionia and y£olis, almost all the island 
towns of the yEgean, the cities of Chalcidice, together with those 
just set free along the Hellespont and the Bosporus, became 
members of the alliance. The league was a free association of 
independent and equal states. Athens was to be the head of the 
confederacy. Aristides was chosen as the first president. Matters 
of common concern were to be in the hands of a congress con- 
vened yearly in the sacred island of Delos and composed of 
delegates from all the cities. 

At Delos, also, in the temple of Apollo was to be kept the 
common treasure chest, to which each state was to make contri- 
bution according to its ability. What proportion of the ships and 
money should be contributed by the several states for carrying out 
the purposes of the union was left at first entirely to the decision 
of Aristides, such was the confidence all possessed in his fairness 
and incorruptible integrity ; and so long as he retained control of 
the matter, none of the allies ever had cause for complaint. 

The formation of this Delian League constitutes a prominent 
landmark in Grecian history. It meant not simply the transfer from 
Sparta to Athens of leadership in the maritime affairs of Hellas. 
It meant that all the promises of Panhellenic union in the great 
alliance formed at Corinth in 481 B.C. had come to naught. It 
meant, since the Peloponnesian Confederacy still continued to exist, 
that henceforth Hellas was to be a house divided against itself. 



wants by assigning to three cities the duty of providing for his table : one was to 
furnish bread, a second wine, and a third meat. Plutarch relates that one day as 
the exile sat down to his richly loaded board he exclaimed, " How much we should 
have lost, my children, if we had not been ruined ! " He died probably about 460 B.C. 



- 



126 THE ATHENIAN SUPREMACY 

187. The Athenians convert the Delian League into an Empire. 

: — The Confederacy of Delos laid the basis of the imperial power 
of Athens. The Athenians misused their authority as leaders of 
the league, and gradually, during the interval between the forma- 
tion of the union and the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, 
reduced their allies to the condition of tributaries and subjects. 

Athens transformed the league into an empire in the following 
manner. The contributions assessed by Aristides upon the differ- 
ent members of the confederation consisted of ships for the larger 
states and of money payments for the smaller ones. From the 
first, Athens attended to this assessment matter, and saw to it 
that each member of the league made its proper contribution. 

After a while, some of the cities preferring to make a money pay- 
ment in lieu of ships, Athens accepted the commutation, and then, 
building the ships herself, added them to her own navy. Thus the 
confederates disarmed themselves and armed their master. 

Very soon the restraints which Athens imposed upon her allies 
became irksome, and they began to refuse, one after another, to 
pay the assessment in any form. Naxos , one of the Cyclades, 
was the first island to secede from the league (466 B.C.). But 
Athens had no idea of admitting any such doctrine of state rights, 
and with her powerful navy forced the Naxians to remain within 
the union and to pay an increased tribute. 

What happened in the case of Naxos happened in the case 
of other members of the confederation. By the year 449 b.c. 
only three of the island members of the league — Lesbos, Chios, 
and Samos — still retained their independence. They alone of 
all the former allies did not pay tribute. 

Even before the date last named (probably about 457 b.c.) the 
Athenians had transferred the common treasury from Delos to 
Athens, and, diverting the tribute from its original purpose, were 
beginning to spend it, not in the prosecution of war against the 
barbarians, but in the carrying on of home enterprises, as though 
the treasure were their own revenue. About this time also the 
congress probably ceased to exist. Thus what had been simply a 
voluntary confederation of sovereign and independent cities was 



CIMON AND PERICLES 127 

converted into what was practically an absolute monarchy, with 
the Attic democracy as the imperial master. Thus did Athens 
become a " tyrant city." From being the liberator of the Greek 
cities she had become their enslaver. 2 

188. Cimon and Pericles. — Two of the most prominent of the 
Athenian leaders at this time were Cimon and Pericles. Cimon, 
son of Miltiades, was one of the most successful of the admirals 
to whom, after the expulsion of the Persians from Greece, was 
intrusted the command of the armaments designed to wrest from 
them the islands of the ^Egean and the Hellenic cities of the 
Asiatic coast. He was the leader of the aristocratic party at 
Athens, and the friend of Sparta. He was broad-minded, and his 
policy was the maintenance in Greece of a dual hegemony, Sparta 
being allowed leadership on land and Athens leadership on the sea. 

Cimon was opposed by Pericles, who believed that such a 
double leadership was impracticable. The aim of his policy was 
to make the authority of Athens supreme not only on the sea but 
also on the land. The popularity of Cimon at last declined and 
he suffered o stracism , as had Aristides and Themistocles before 
him. The fall of Cimon gave Pericles a practically free hand in 
the carrying out of his ambitious policy. 3 

189. Construction of the Long Walls. — As a part of his 
maritime policy, Pericles persuaded the Athenians to push to 

2 Sentiment in most of the subject cities, it should be noted, was divided. While 
the aristocratic class was generally the bitter enemy of Athens, the lower classes 
were as a rule friends of the Athenian democracy. But the frequent revolts from 
Athens show how strong in most cases was the sentiment of home rule. 

3 At this time there were effected some important changes in the Athenian con- 
stitution, which made it almost purely democratic in character. These changes con- 
cerned the ancient council of the Areopagus. The great and patriotic services 
rendered by this council during the Persian Wars had given it a place of great influ- 
ence and power during the years immediately following the battles of Salamis and 
Plataea. But public sentiment had now changed. The council was regarded by the 
democratic party with some such feelings of distrust as are entertained by the Eng- 
lish Liberals towards the House of Lords. It seemed to them, as indeed it was, the 
stronghold of aristocratic prejudice and conservatism. The court was now stripped 
of important powers, which were conferred upon the various courts and boards of a 
popular character. This reform amounted to a revolution. It swept away the last 
bulwark against the inroads of the democratic spirit. Henceforth the Athenians 
were to be their own censors and judges as well as their own legislators. 



128 



THE ATHENIAN SUPREMACY 



completion what were known as the Long Walls (about 45 7— 
455 B.C.), which united Athens to the port of Piraeus. By means 
of these great ramparts, which were between four and five miles 
in length, Athens and her principal port, with the intervening 
land, were converted into a vast fortified district, capable in time 




Athens and her Long Walls 4 

of war of holding the entire population of Attica. With her com- 
munication with the sea thus secured, and with a powerful navy 
at her command, Athens could bid defiance to her foes on sea 
and land. 

190. Pericles tries in vain to create a Land Empire ; the Thirty 
Years' Truce (445 B.C.). — At the same time that Pericles was 
making Athens' supremacy by sea more secure, he was endeavor- 
ing to build up for her a land empire in Central Greece. As Athe- 
nian influence in this quarter increased, Sparta became more and 
more jealous, and strove to counteract it by enhancing the power 
of Thebes, and by lending support to the aristocratic party in 
the various cities of Boeotia. 

4 It is the opinion of Ernest Arthur Gardner, in opposition to the view which has 
been generally held, that there were only two walls, the one shown on the map as the 
southern being the so-called Phaleric Wall. See his Ancient Athens, pp. 56-59. 



THE AGE OF PERICLES 



129 



The contest between the two rivals was long and bitter. It was 
ended by what is known as the Peace of Pericles, or the Thirty 
Years' Truce (445 B.C.). By the terms of this treaty each of the 
rival cities was left at the head of the confederation it had formed, 
but neither was to interfere with the subjects or allies of the other. 
The real meaning of the truce was that Athens gave up her ambi- 
tion to establish a land empire and was henceforth to be content 
with supremacy on the seas. 



II. The Age of Pericles (445-431 b.c.) 

191. General Character of the Period. — The fourteen years fol- 
lowing the Thirty Years' Truce are known as the Years of Peace. 
During all this period Athens was involved in only one short war 
of note. And not only was there peace 
throughout the empire of Athens, but also 
throughout the Mediterranean world, as 
happened again four centuries later in the 
reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus 
(sec. 397). And as that later period of 
peace marked the Golden Age of Rome, 
so did this earlier era mark the Golden 
Age of Athens. 

The epoch, as we here limit it, embraced 
less than half the lifetime of a single gener- 
ation, yet its influence upon the civiliza- 
tion of the world can hardly be overrated. " 9 ' 
During this short period Athens gave birth to more great men — 
poets, artists, statesmen, and philosophers — than all the world 
besides has produced in any period of equal length. 

2Vmong-all the great men of this age Pericles stood preeminent. 
Such was the impression he left upon the period in which he 
lived that it is called after him the Periclean Age. Yet Pericles' 
authority was simply that which talent and character justly confer. 
He ruled, as Plutarch says, by the art of persuasion. His throne 
was the Bema. 




Pericles 



130 THE ATHENIAN SUPREMACY 

The people were at this period the source and fountain of all 
power. Every matter which concerned Athens and her empire 
was discussed and decided by the popular assembly. Never before 
in the history of the world had any people enjoyed such unrestricted 
political liberty as did the citizens of Athens at this time, and 
never before were any people, through so intimate a knowledge 
of public affairs, so well fitted to take part in the administration of 
government. As a rule, every citizen was qualified to hold public 
office. At all events the Athenians acted upon this assumption, as 
is shown by their extremely democratic practice of filling all the 
public offices, save a few in the army and navy, by the use of the lot. 

192. Pericles takes the Citizens into the Pay of the State. — 
It was a fixed idea of Pericles that in a democracy there should 
be not only an equal distribution of political rights among all 
classes, but also an equalization of the means and opportunities 
of exercising these rights, together with an equal participation by 
all in social and intellectual enjoyments. 

In promoting his views Pericles carried to great length the 
system of payment for the most common public services. Thus 
he introduced, or at least organized, the system of payment for 
military services ; hitherto the Athenian, save probably as respects 
service in the fleet, had served his country in time of war without 
compensation. Through his influence also, or that of his party, 
salaries were, during this period, attached to the various civil offices, 
all of which were originally unpaid positions. This reform enabled 
the poorer citizens to offer themselves as candidates for the differ- 
ent magistracies, which under the earlier system, notwithstanding 
the provisions of the constitution, had been practically open only 
to men of means and leisure. The outcome of the policy of 
Pericles was that before the beginning of the Peloponnesian War 
almost every citizen of Athens was in the pay of the state. Aris- 
totle says that more than twenty thousand were receiving payment 
for one kind of service or another. 

It was the same motives that prompted the above innovations 
which led Pericles to introduce or to extend the practice of sup 
plying all the citizens with free tickets to the theater and other 



: 



THE DICASTERIES 131 

places of amusement,, and of banqueting the people on festival 
days at the public expense. 

193. The Dicasteries. — Among the services for which the 
citizen received payment from the state was that rendered by the 
Athenian juryman in the great popular courts. These tribunals 
formed a characteristic feature of the Athens of Pericles. 

Each year there were chosen by lot from those citizens who 
wished to serve on juries six thousand persons. One thousand 
were held in reserve ; the remaining five thousand were divided 
into ten sections of five hundred each. These divisions were 
called dicasteries, and the members dicasts, or jurymen. The 
usual number sitting on any given case was between two hun- 
dred and four hundred. Sometimes, however, when an important 
case was to be heard, the jury would number two thousand or 
even more. 

There was an immense amount of law business brought before 
these courts ; for they tried not only all cases arising between 
the citizens of Athens, but attended also to a large part of the 
law business of the numerous cities of Athens' great empire. 
The decision of the jurors was final. The judgment of a dicas- 
tery was never reversed or annulled. The decisions of the dicasts 
were not always consonant with justice ; but probably the ver- 
dicts were, on the whole, as just and reasonable as are those of 
the modern jury. 

194. Pericles adorns Athens with Public Buildings. — Athens 
having achieved such a position as she now held, it was the idea 
of Pericles that the Athenians should so adorn their city that it 
should be a fitting symbol of the power and glory of their empire. 
Nor was it difficult for him to persuade his art-loving country- 
men to embellish their city with those masterpieces of architec- 
ture that in their ruins still excite the admiration of the world. 

The most noteworthy of the Periclean structures were grouped 
upon the Acropolis. Here, as the gateway to the sacred inclosure 
of the citadel, were erected the magnificent Propykea, which have 
served as a model for similar structures since the time of Pericles. 
Here also was raised the beautiful Parthenon, sacred to the virgin 




I 3 2 



THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE 133 

goddess Athena. The architects of this building were Ictinus 
and Callicrates ; the celebrated sculptures of the frieze were 
designed by Phidias. Near the temple stood the colossal bronze 
statue of Athena, — made, it is said, from the spoils of Marathon, 
— whose glittering spear point was a beacon to the mariner 
sailing in from Sunium. 5 

195. Strength and Weakness of the Athenian Empire Under 

Pericles Athens had become the most powerful naval state in the 
world. In one of his last speeches Pericles says to his fellow- 
citizens : " There is not now a king, there is not any nation in 
the universal world, able to withstand that navy which at this 
juncture you can launch qut_to sea." And this was no empty 
boast. The yEgean had become an Athenian lake. Its islands and 
coast lands formed practically an Athenian empire. The revenue 
ships of Athens collected tribute from two hundred Greek cities. 

But the most significant feature of this new imperial power 
was the remarkable combination of material and intellectual re- 
sources which it exhibited. Never before had there been such 
a union of the material and the intellectual elements of civili- 
zation at the seat of empire. 6 Literature and art had been carried 
to the utmost perfection possible to human genius. Art was repre- 
sented by the inimitable creations of Phidias and Polygnotus, 
while the drama was illustrated by the incomparable tragedies of 
^Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. 7 

But there were elements of weakness in the splendid imperial 
structure. The Athenian Empire was destined to be short-lived 
because the principles upon which it rested were in opposition 



5 For further details of these art matters, see sees. 239 and 245. 

6 " The average ability of the Athenian race [was], on the lowest possible esti- 
mate, very nearly two grades higher than our own ; that is, about as much as our 
race is above that of the African negro. This estimate, which may seem prodigious to 
some, is confirmed by the quick intelligence and high culture of the Athenian com- 
monalty, before whom literary works were recited, and works of art exhibited of a 
far more severe character than could possibly be appreciated by the average of our 
race, the caliber of whose intellect is easily gauged by a glance at the contents of a 
railway bookstall." — Galton, Hereditary Genius, p. 342 (2d American ed., 1887) ; 
quoted by Kidd, Social Evolution, chap. ix. 

7 For short notices of these artists and poets, see sees. 245, 249, and 257. 



134 THE ATHENIAN SUPREMACY 

to the deepest instinct of the Greek race, — to that sentiment 
of local patriotism which invested each individual city with 
political sovereignty (sec. 123). The so-called confederates were 
the subjects of Athens. To her they paid tribute. To her 
courts they were dragged for trial. 8 Naturally the subject cities 
of her empire — that is, the patriotic or home rule party in 
these dependent states — regarded Athens as the destroyer of 
Hellenic liberties, and watched impatiently for the first favorable 
moment to revolt and throw off the yoke that she had imposed 
upon them. Hence the Athenian Empire rested upon a founda- 
tion of sand. 

Illustrations of these weaknesses, as well as of the strength of 
the Athenian Empire, will be afforded by the great struggle 
between Athens and Sparta known as the Peloponnesian War, 
the causes and chief incidents of which we shall next rehearse. 



Selections from the Sources. — Plutarch, Life of Aristides and Life 
of Pericles. Thucydides, i. 90-93 ; tells how Themistocles outwitted 
Sparta. 

Secondary Works. — Curtius, vol. ii, pp. 353-459 and 460-641. Grote 
(ten-volume ed.), vol. iv, pp. 330-437 and 438-533. Abbott, vol. ii, pp. 
243-415 ; and vol. iii, chaps, i and ii. Holm, vol. ii, chaps, vii-xx. Bury, 
J. B., History of Greece, chaps, viii and ix. Cox, G. W., The Athenian 
Empire and Lives of Athenian Statesmen, "Aristeides," " Themistokles," 
" Pausanias," " Kimon." Greenidge, A. H. J., Handbook of Greek Constitu- 
tional History, chap, vi, sec. 5. Butler, H. C, The Story of Athens, chap. vii. 
Abbott, E., Pericles and the Golden Age of Athens, chaps, x-xviii. Grant, 
A. J., Greece in the Age of Pericles, chaps, vii, viii, arid xii. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The Confederacy of Delos. 2. The 
end of Pausanias. 3. Aristides. 4. Athens' relations to the cities of her 
empire. 5. The buildings of Athens. 6. "A Day in Athens." 

8 The subject cities were allowed to maintain only their lower courts of justice. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR; THE SPARTAN AND THE 
THEBAN SUPREMACY 

I. The Peloponnesian War (431-404 b.c.) 

196. The Immediate Causes of the War. — Before the end of 
the life of Pericles the growing jealousy between Ionian Athens 
and Dorian Sparta and her allies broke out in the long and 
calamitous struggle known as the Peloponnesian War. One im- 
mediate cause of the war was the interference of Athens, on the 
side of the Corcyraeans, in a quarrel between them and their 
mother city Corinth. A second proximate cause was the blockade 
by the Athenians of Potidsea, in Chalcidice. This was a Corin- 
thian colony, but it was a member of the Delian League, and was 
now being chastised by Athens for attempted secession. Corinth, 
as the jealous naval rival of Athens, had endeavored to lend aid 
to her daughter, but had been worsted in an engagement with 
the Athenians. 

With affairs in this shape, Corinth, seconded by other states 
that had causes of complaint against Athens, appealed to Sparta, 
as the head of the Dorian alliance, for aid and justice. The 
Spartans, after listening to the deputies of both sides, decided 
that the Athenians had been guilty of injustice, and declared for 
war. The resolution of the Spartans was' indorsed by the Pelopon- 
nesian Confederation, and apparently approved by the Delphian 
oracle, which, in response to an inquiry of the Spartans as to what 
would be the issue of the proposed undertaking, assured them that 
"they would gain the victory, if they fought with all their might." 

197. The Peloponnesians ravage Attica (431 b.c). — A Pelo- 
ponnesian army was soon collected at the Isthmus, ready for a 
canrpaign against Athens. With invasion imminent, the inhabit- 
ants of the hamlets and~scattered farmhouses of Attica abandoned 

i35 



136 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 

their homes and sought shelter behind the defenses of the capital. 
Into the plain thus deserted the Peloponnesians marched, and 
ravaged the country far and near. From the walls of the city the 
Athenians could see the flames of their burning houses, which 
recalled to the old men the sight they had witnessed from the 
island of Salamis just forty-nine years before, at the time of 
the Persian invasion. The failure of provisions finally compelled 
the Peloponnesians to withdraw from the country, and the con- 
tingents" of the different cities scattered to theTFhomes. 

198. Funeral Oration of Pericles. — It was the custom of the 
Athenians to bury with public and imposing ceremonies the 
bodieTbf those slain in battle. After the burial of the remains, 
some person chosen by his fellow-citizens on account of his 
special fitness for the service delivered an oration over the dead, 
extolling their deeds and exhorting the living to an imitation of 
their virtues. 

It was during the winter following the campaign we have men- 
tioned that the Athenians celebrated the funeral ceremonies of 
those who had fallen thus far in the war. Pericles was chosen to 
give the oration on this occasion. This funeral speech, as reported 
by Thucydides, 1 is one of the most valuable memorials preserved 
to us from antiquity. The speaker took advantage of the occa- 
sion to describe the institutions to which Athens owed her great- 
ness, and to picture the glories of the imperial city for which the 
heroes they lamented had died. He praised the Athenian govern- 
ment, in which all the citizens, rich and poor alike, had part. 
He praised, too, Athens' military system, in which the citizen 
was not sacrificed to the soldier, as at Sparta ; and yet Athens 
was alone a match for Sparta and all her allies. He extolled the 
intellectual, moral, and social virtues of the Athenians, which 

1 Respecting the speeches which Thucydides introduces so frequently in his 
narrative, he himself says : " As to the speeches which were made either before or 
during the war, it was hard for me, and for others who reported them to me, to 
recollect the exact words. I have therefore put into the mouth of each speaker the 
sentiments proper to the occasion, expressed as I thought he would be likely to 
express them, while at the same time I endeavored, as nearly as I could, to give the 
general purport of what was actually said" (Jowett's Thucydides, i. 15). 



FUNERAL ORATION OF PERICLES 



137 



W'0. 



1 



-AmR 




were fostered by their free institutions, and declared their city to 
be " the school of Hellas " and the model for all other cities. 

Continuing, the speaker declared that Athens alone of all 
existing cities was greater than the report of her in the world ; 
and that she would never p — -^ssipp^pn^ 

need a Homer to per- jf 
petuate her memory, be- 
cause she herself had set 
up everywhere eternal 
monuments of her great- 
ness. " Such is the city," 
he exclaimed impres- 
sively, " for whose sake 
these men nobly fought 
and died ; they could not 
bear the thought that she 
might be taken from 
them ; and every one of us 
who survive should gladly 
toil on her behalf." 

Then followed words of 
tribute to the valor and 
self-devotion of the dead, 
whose sepulchers and in- 
scriptions were not the « 2 
graves and the memorial 
stones of the cemetery, — 
" for the whole earth is 
the sepulcher of famous men," and the memorials of them are 
"graven not on stone but in the hearts of mankind." Finally, 




Fig. 51. — The So-called Mourning 
Athena. 2 (From a photograph) 



2 A bas-relief recently excavated on the Acropolis of Athens. Dr. Charles 
Waldstein thinks that this sculpture may " have headed an inscription containing 
the names of those who had fallen in battle, which record was placed in some 
public spot in Athens or on the Acropolis. Our Athene-Nike would then be stand- 
ing in the attitude of mourning, with reversed spear, gazing down upon the tomb- 
stone which surmounts the grave of her brave sons." As to the possible connection 
of this relief with the funeral oration of Pericles, Dr. Waldstein says : " Though I 



138 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 

with words of comfort for the relatives of the dead, the orator 
dismissed the assembly to their homes. 3 

199. The Plague at Athens (430 B.C.); Death of Pericles 
(429 B.C.). — Upon the return of the next campaigning season 
the Peloponnesians broke once more into Attica and ravaged the 
land anew. The walls of Athens were unassailable by the hostile 
army; but unfortunately they were no defense against a more 
terrible foe. A pestilence broke out in the crowded city and 
added its horrors to the already unbearable calamities of war. 
The mortality was frightful. One fourth of the population of the 
city was swept away. In the third year of the war the plague 
reappeared at Athens. Pericles, who had been the very soul and 
life of Athens during all these dark days, fell a victim to the 
disease. 

After the death of Pericles the leadership of affairs at Athens 
fell to a great degree into the hands of demagogues. The mob 
element got control of the Ecclesia, so that hereafter we shall find 
many of its measures marked neither by virtue nor by wisdom. 

200. The Cruel Character of the War. — On both sides the war 
was waged with the utmost vindictiveness and cruelty. As a rule, 
all prisoners taken on either side were killed. In the year 428 b.c. 
the Lesbian city of Mytilene revoltecTfrom the Athenians. With 
the rebellion suppressed, the fate of the Mytileneans was in the 
hands of the Athenian assembly. Cleon, a rash and violent leader, 
proposed that all the men of the^pTace, six thousand in number, 
should be slain, and the women and children sold as slaves. This 
infamous decree was passed, and a galley dispatched bearing the 
sentence for execution to the Athenian general at Mytilene. 

By the next morning, however, the Athenians had repented of 
their hasty resolution. A second meeting of the assembly was 
hurriedly called, the barbarous vote was repealed, and a swift tri- 
reme, bearing the reprieve, set out in anxious haste to overtake 

do not mean to say that the inscription which it surmounted referred immediately 
to those who had fallen in the campaign of 431 B.C., I still feel that the most perfect 
counterpart in literature is the famous funeral oration of Pericles as recorded by , 
Thucydides." 

3 Thucydides, ii. 35-46, for the whole oration. 



THE SURRENDER OF A SPARTAN FORCE 139 

the former galley, which had twenty-four hours the start. The 
trireme reached the island just in time to prevent the execution 
of the cruel edict. The second resolution of the Athenians, though 
more discriminating than the first, was quite severe enough. Over 
one thousand of the nobles of Mytilene were killed, the walls of 
the city were thrown down, and the larger part of the lands of the 
island was given to citizens of Athens. 

Still more unrelenting and cruel were the Spartans. In the sum- 
mer of the same year that the Athenians wreaked such vengeance 
upon the Mytileneans, the Spartans and their allies captured the 
city of Plataea, put to death all the men, sold the women as slaves, 
and turned the site of the city into pa sture land . 

201. The Surrender of a Spartan Force ; the Significance of this. 
— Soon after the affair at Mytilene and the destruction of Plataea, 
an enterprising general of the Athenians, named Demosthenes, 
seized and fortified a point of land (Pylos) on the coast of Mes- 
senia. The Spartans made every effort to dislodge the enemy. In 
the course of the siege some Lacedaemonians, having landed upon 
an adjacent little island (Sphacteria), were so unfortunate as to be 
cut off from the mainland by the sudden arrival of an Athenian 
fleet. After having made a splendid fight, they were, surrounded 
and hopelessly outnumbered. They must now either surrender or 
die. They decided to surrender. Among those giving themselves 
up were over a hundred Spartans, some of whom were members 
of the best families at Sparta. 

The surrender of Spartan soldiers had hitherto been deemed an 
incredible thing. " Nothing which happened during the war," 
declares Thucydides, " caused greater amazement in Hellas ; for 
it was universally imagined that the Lacedaemonians would never 
give up their arms, either under the pressure of famine or in any 
other extremity, but would fight to the last and die sword in hand." 

The real significance of the affair was the revelation it made of 
the relaxing at Sparta of that tense military discipline and spirit 
which had made for the Spartans such a reputation in the Hellenic 
world. It was the beginning of the end. In passing from Ther- 
mopylae to Pylos we cross a great divide in Spartan history. 



Izj-O 



THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 



202. The Peace of Nicias (421 B.C.). — After four more years of 
fighting both sides became weary of the war. Negotiations for 
peace were opened, which, after many embassies back and forth, 
resulted in what is known as the Peace of Nicias, because of the 
prominent part that Athenian general had in bringing it about. 
The treaty provided for a truce of fifty years. 

The Peace of Nicias was only a nominal one. Some of the allies 
of the two principal parties to the truce were dissatisfied with it, 
and so the war went on. For about seven years, however, Athens 
and Sparta refrained from invading each other's territory ; but 

even during this period each was 
aiding its allies in making war upon 
the dependents or confederates of 
the other. Finally hostilities flamed 
out in open and avowed war, and all 
Hellas was again lit up with the fires 
of the fratricidal strife. 

203. Alcibiades. — It becomes 
necessary for us here to introduce a 
new leader of the Athenian demos, 
Alcibiades, who played a most con- 
spicuous part, not only in Athenian 

but also in Hellenic affairs, from 
Fig. 152. — Alcibiades ,, . .. ,, -, c ., 

this time on to near the close of the 

war. Alcibiades was a young man of noble lineage and of aristo- 
cratic associations. He was versatile, brilliant, and resourceful, 
but unscrupulous, reckless, and profligate. He was a pupil of 
Socrates, but he failed to follow the counsels of his teacher. His 
astonishing escapades kept all Athens talking, yet seemed only to 
attach the people more closely to him, for he possessed all those 
personal traits which make men popular idols. His influence over 
the democracy was unlimited. He was able to carry through the 
Ecclesia almost any measure that it pleased him~Eb advocate. 

The more prudent of the Athenians were filled with apprehen- 
sion for the future of the state under such guidance. The noted 
misanthrope Timon gave expression to this feeling when, after 




THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION I 4 I 

Alcibiades had secured the assent of the popular assembly to one 
of his impolitic measures, he said to him : "Go on, my brave 
boy, and prosper; for your prosperity will bring on the ruin of 
all this crowd." And it did, as we shall see. 

204. The Sicilian Expedition (415^413 B.C.). — The most pros- 
perous enterprise of Alcibiades, in the Timonian sense, was the 
inciting of the Athenians to undertake an expedition against the 
Dorian city of Syracuse, in Sicily. The resolution to engage in 
the tremendous enterprise seems tc have been taken lightly by the 
Athenians, which was quite in keeping with their usual way of 
doing things. The vastness of the armament needed seemed to 
captivate their imagination. The expedition further presented 
itself to the ardent imagination of the youth as a sort of pleasure 
and sight-seeing excursion among the wonders of the land of the 
"Far West." 

An immense fleet was carefully equipped and manned. 4 Anx- 
iously did those remaining behind watch the departing ships until 
they were lost to sight. Could the anxious watchers have foreseen 
the fate of the splendid armament, their anxiety would have passed 
into despair : "Athens itself was sailing out of the Piraeus, never 
to return." 

Scarcely had the expedition arrived at Sicily, before Alcibiades, 
who was one of the^generals in command of the armament, was 
summoned back to Athens to answer a charge of impiety. 5 Fear- 
ing to trust himself hi the hands of his enemies at Athens, he fled 
to Sparta, and there, by traitorous counsel, did all in his power to 
ruin the very expedition he had planned. The surest way, he told 
the Spartans, in which to wreck the plans of the Athenians was to 
send to Sicily at once a force of heavy-armed men, and above all 
a good Spartan general, who alone would be worth a whole army. 
The Spartans acted upon this advice and sent to Sicily their ablest 

4 It consisted of one hundred and thirty-four costly triremes, bearing thirty-six 
thousand soldiers and sailors. 

5 Just upon the eve of the departure of the expedition, the numerous statues 
of Hermes scattered throughout the city were grossly mutilated. Alcibiades was 
accused of having had a hand in the affair, and furthermore of having mimicked the 
sacred rites of the Eleusinian mysteries. 



142 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 

general, Gylippus, with instructions to push the war there with 
the utmost vigor. 

The affairs of the Athenians in Sicily at just this time were 
prospering greatly. But the arrival of Gylippus changed everything 
at once. After some severe fighting in which the Athenians lost 
heavily, they resolved to withdraw their forces from the island 
while retreat by the sea was still open to them. - 

Just as the ships were about to weigh anchor, there occurred 
an eclipse of the moon. This portent caused the greatest con- 
sternation among the Athenian troops. Nicias, the general in 
chief command, unfortunately was a superstitious man, having 
full faith in omens and divination. He sought the advice of his 
soothsayers. They pronounced the portent an unfavorable one, 
and advised that the retreat be delayed thirty-seven days. Never 
did a reliance upon omens more completely undo a people. The 
delay was fatal. 

Further disaster and a failure of provisions finally convinced 
the Athenians that they must without longer delay fight their 
way out by sea or by land. But already it was too late. The 
attempt to force their way through the enemy's fleet in the harbor 
failed dismally. There was now no course open save retreat by 
land. Making such preparations as they could for their march, 
they set out. Pursued and harassed by the Syracusans, the fleeing 
multitude was practically annihilated. The prisoners, about seven 
thousand in number, were crowded in deep, open stone quarries 
around Syracuse, where hundreds soon died of exposure and 
starvation. Most of the wretched survivors were finally sold as 
slaves. The tragedy of the Sicilian expedition was ended. 

205. The Decelean "War; the Fall of Athens (404" B.C.). — 
While the Athenians were before Syracuse, the Spartans, acting 
upon the advice of Alcibiades, had taken possession of and forti- 
fied a strong and commanding position known as Dec elea , in 
Attica, only fourteen miles from Athens. This was a thorn in the 
side of Athens. Secure in this stronghold, the Spartans could 
annoy and keep in terror almost all the Attic plain. The occupa- 
tion by the Spartans of this strategic point had such a determining 



THE DECELEAN WAR 143 

influence upon the remainder of the Peloponnesian War, that this 
latter portion of it is known as the Decelean War (413-404 B.C.). 

With most admirable courage the Athenians, after the great 
disaster in Sicily, set to work to retrieve their seemingly irre- 
trievable fortune. Forgetting and forgiving the past, they recalled 
Alcibiades and gave him command of the army, thereby well illus- 
trating what the poet Aristophanes said respecting the disposition 
of the Athenians towards the spoiled favorite, — " They love, they 
hate, but cannot live without him." 

Alcibiades gained some splendid victories for Athens. But he 
could not undo the evil he had done. He had ruined Athens 
beyond redemption by any human power. The struggle grew 
more and more hopeless. Alcibiades was defeated, and, fearing 
to face the Athenians, who had deposed him from his command, 
sought safety in flight. 6 

Finally, at ^Fgospotami, on the Hellespont, the Athenian fleet 
was surprised and captured by the Spartan general Lysander 
(405 B.C.). The native Athenians, to the number of four thousand 
it is said, were put to death, the usual rites of burial being denied 
their bodies. Among the few Athenian vessels that escaped cap- 
ture was the state ship Parahts, which hastened to Athens with 
the tidings of the terrible misfortune. It arrived in the nighttime, 
and from the Pirseus the awful news, published by a despairing 
wail, spread up the Long Walls into the upper city. " That 
night," says Xenophon, "no one slept." 

Besieged by sea and land, Athens was soon forced to surrender. 
Some of the allies insisted upon a total destruction of the city. 
The Spartans, however, with apparent magnanimity, declared that 
they would never consent thus " to put out one of the eyes of 
Greece." The real motive of the Spartans in sparing the city was 
their fear lest, with Athens blotted out, Thebes or Corinth should 
become too powerful, and the leadership of Sparta be thereby 
endangered. The final resolve was that the lives of the Athenians 
should be spared, but that they should be required to demolish 
their Long Walls and those of the Piraeus, to give up all their 

6 Some years later he was killed in Asia Minor. 



I 4 4 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 

ships save twelve, and to bind themselves to do Sparta's bidding 
by sea and land. 

The Athenians were forced to surrender on these hard condi- 
tions. Straightway the victors dismantled the harbor at Piraeus, 
burning the unfinished ships on the docks, and then began the 
demolition of the Long Walls and the fortifications, the work 
going on to the accompaniment of festive music and dancing ; for 
the Peloponnesians, says Xenophon, looked upon that day as the 
beginning of liberty for the Hellenes. 

The long war was now over. The dominion of the imperial city 
of Athens was at an end, and the great days of Greece were past. 

206. The Results of the War. — "Never," says Thucydides, 
commenting upon the results of the Peloponnesian War, " never 
were so many cities captured and depopulated. . .• . Never were 
exile and slaughter more frequent, whether in the war or brought 
about by civil strife." Greece never recovered from the blow 
which had destroyed so large a part of her population. 

Athens was merely the wreck of her former self. The harbor 
of the Piraeus, once crowded with ships, was now empty. The 
population of the capital had been terribly thinned. Things were 
just the reverse now of what they were at the time of the Persian 
invasion, when, with Athens in ruins, Themistocles at Salamis, 
taunted with being a man without a city, could truthfully declare 
that Athens was there on the sea in her ships. Now the real 
Athens was gone ; only the empty shell remained. 

Not Athens alone, but all Hellas, bore the marks of the cruel 
war. Sites once covered with pleasant villages or flourishing towns 
were now plow and pasture land. The Greek world had sunk 
many degrees in morality, while the vigor and productiveness of 
the intellectual and artistic life of Hellas were impaired beyond 
recovery. The achievements of the Greek intellect in the century 
following the war were, it is true, wonderful ; but these triumphs 
merely show, we may believe, what the Hellenic mind would have 
done for art and general culture had it been permitted, unchecked, 
and under the favoring and inspiring conditions of liberty and 
self-government, to disclose all that was latent in it. 



THE SPARTAN SUPREMACY 



145 



II. The Spartan and the Theban Supremacy 

207. Spartan Supremacy. — For just one generation following 
the Peloponnesian War (404-371 B.C.), Sparta held the leadership 
of the Grecian states. Throughout that struggle she had maintained 
that her only purpose in warring against Athens was to regain for 
the Grecian cities the liberty of which she had deprived them. 
But no sooner was the power of Athens broken than Sparta her- 
self began to play the tyrant. Aristocratic governments, with insti- 
tutions similar to the Spartan, were established in the different 
cities of the old Athenian Empire. At Athens the democratic 
constitution under which the Athenians had attained their great- 
ness was abolished, and an oppressive oligarchy established in 
its stead. The Thirty Tyrants, however, who administered this 
government, were, after eight months' infamous rule, driven from 
the city, and the old democratic constitution, somewhat modified 
was reestablished (403 B.C.). 

208. The Expedition of the Ten Thousand Greeks (401-400 B.C.). 
— One of the most memorable episodes of this period of Spartan 
supremacy was the famous expedition of the Ten Thousand 
Greeks. Cyrus, brother of the Persian king Artaxerxes II, and 
satrap in Asia Minor, feeling that he had been unjustly excluded 
from the throne by his brother, secretly planned to dethrone him. 
From various quarters he gathered an army of over a hundred 
thousand barbarians and about thirteen thousand Greek mercena- 
ries. Setting out from Sardis, he had penetrated to the very heart 
of the Persian Empire before, at Cunaxa in Babylonia, his farther 
advance was disputed by Artaxerxes with an army numbering, it 
is said, eight hundred thousand men. In the battle which here fol- 
lowed the splendid conduct of the Greeks won the day for their 
leader. Cyrus, however, was slain ; and the Greek generals, lured 
to a conference, were treacherously seized and put to death. 

The Greeks, in a hurried night meeting, chose new generals to 
lead them back to their homes. One of these was Xenophon, the 
popular historian of the expedition. Now commenced one of the 
most memorable retreats in all history. After a most harassing 



146 THE SPARTAN SUPREMACY 

march over the hot plains of the Tigris and the icy passes of 
Armenia, the survivors reached the Black Sea, the abode of sister 
Greek colonies. 

The march of the Ten Thousand is regarded as one of the 
most remarkable military exploits of antiquity. Its historical 
significance is owing to the fact that it paved the way for the 
later expedition of Alexander the Great. This it did by reveal- 
ing to the Greeks the decayed state of the Persian Empire, and 
showing how feeble was the resistance which it could offer to the 
march of an army of disciplined soldiers. 

209. The Condemnation and Death of Socrates (399 B.C.). — 
While Xenophon was yet away on his expedition there happened 
in his native city one of the saddest tragedies in history. This 
was the trial and condemnation to death by the Athenians of 
their fellow-citizen Socrates, the greatest moral teacher of pagan 
antiquity. The double charge upon which he was condemned 
was worded as follows : " Socrates is guilty of crime, — first, for 
not worshiping the gods whom the city worships, but in intro- 
ducing new divinities of his own; next, for corrupting the youth." 
The trial was before a dicastery or citizen court (sec. 193) com- 
posed of over five hundred jurors, and the sentence of death was 
pronounced by a majority vote. 

It so happened that the sentence fell just after the sacred ship 
that yearly bore the offering to Delos in commemoration of the 
deliverance of the Athenian youth from the Cretan Minotaur 
(sec. 117) had set sail on its holy mission, and since by a law of 
the city no one could be put to death while it was away, Socrates 
was led to prison, and there remained for about thirty days before 
the execution of the sentence. This period Socrates spent in 
serene converse with his friends upon those lofty themes that had 
occupied his thoughts during all his life. When at last the hour 
for his departure had arrived, he bade his friends farewell, and 
then calmly drank the cup of poison. 

210. The Battle of Leuctra (371 B.C.). — Throughout the 
period of her supremacy Sparta continued to deal most tyrannic- 
ally with the other Greek cities. One of her worst crimes was the 



THE BATTLE OF LEUCTRA 147 

treacherous seizure of the citadel of Thebes and the placing of a 
Spartan garrison in it. All Greece stood aghast at this perfidious 
and high-handed act, and looked to see some awful misfortune 
befall Sparta as a retribution. 

And misfortune came speedily enough, and not single-handed. 
The Spartan garrison was driven out of the citadel by an uprising 
led by Pelopidas, a Theban exile of distinguished family. A Spar- 
tan army was soon in Bceotia. The Thebans met the invaders at 
Leuctra. The Spartans had no other thought than that they should 
gain an easy victory. But the military genius of the Theban com- 
mander, Epaminondas, had prepared for Hellas a startling surprise. 
Hitherto the Greeks had fought drawn up in extended and com- 
paratively thin opposing lines, not more than twelve ranks deep. 
The Spartans at Leuctra formed their line in the usual way. 
Epaminondas, on the other hand, massed his best troops in a 
solid column, that is in a phalanx, fifty deep, on the left of his 
battle line, the rest being drawn up in the ordinary extended 
line. With all ready for the attack, the phalanx was set in motion 
first. It plowed through the thin line of the enemy " as the beak 
of a ship plows through a wave," — and the day was won. Of the 
seven hundred Spartans in the fight four hundred were killed. 
It was the first time that a Spartan army with its king had been 
fairly beaten in a great battle by an enemy inferior in numbers. 
The Spartan forces at Thermopylae headed by their king had, it 
is true, been annihilated, — but annihilation is not defeat. 

The manner in which the news of the overwhelming calamity 
was received at Sparta affords a striking illustration of Spartan 
discipline and self-control. It so happened that when the messen- 
ger arrived the Spartans were celebrating a festival. The Ephors 
would permit no interruption of the entertainment. They merely 
sent lists of the fallen to their families, and ordered that the 
women should make no lamentation nor show any signs of grief. 
"The following day," says Xenophon, " those who had lost rela- 
tives in the battle appeared on the streets with cheerful faces, 
while those whose relatives had escaped, if they appeared in 
public at all, went about with sad and dejected looks." When 



148 THE THEBAN SUPREMACY 

we contrast this scene at Sparta with that at Athens upon the 
night of the receipt of the news of the disaster of ^Egospotami 
(sec. 205), we are impressed with the wide interval which sepa- 
rated the Athenian from the Spartan. 

211. The Theban Supremacy (371-362 B.C.). — From the vic- 
tory of Leuctra dates the short but brilliant period of Theban 
supremacy. The year after that battle Epaminondas led an army 
into the Peloponnesus to aid the Arcadians against Sparta. 
Laconia was ravaged, and for the first time Spartan women saw 
the smoke of the camp fires of an enemy. 

But, moved by jealousy of the rapidly growing power of Thebes, 
Athens now formed an alliance with her old rival Sparta against 
her. Three times more did Epaminondas lead an army into the 
Peloponnesus. Upon his last expedition he fought with the 
Spartans and Athenians the great battle of Mantinea, in Arcadia. 
On this memorable field Epaminondas led the Thebans once 
more to victory ; but he himself was slain, and with him fell the 
hopes and power of Thebes (362 b.c). 

All the states of Greece now lay exhausted, worn out by their 
endless domestic contentions and wars. There was scarcely suffi- 
cient strength left to strike one worthy blow against enslavement 
by the master destined soon to come from the North. 

Selections from the Sources. — Plutarch, Life of Alcibiades. Thucyd- 
ides, ii. 35-46; the funeral oration of Pericles. Plato, Apology, xxxi- 
xxxiii; the bearing of Socrates before his judges. 

Secondary Works. — Curtius, vol. iii, pp. 321-413, and vol. iy. Grote 
(ten-volume ed.), vols, iv-vi, on the war; and vol. vii, pp. 81-172, on 
Socrates. Abbott, vol. iii, chaps, iii-xii. Holm, vol. ii, chaps, xxi-xxviii. 
Cox, History of Greece, vol. ii, pp. 104-594 ; and Lives of Greek Statesmen, 
" Kleon," " Brasidas," " Demosthenes," and " Nikias." Creasy, E. S., 
Decisive Battles of the World, chap, ii, " Defeat of the Athenians at 
Syracuse, B.C. 413." Sankey, C, The Spartan and Theban Supremacies. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The debate in the Athenian assembly 
on the proposed Sicilian expedition. See Thucydides, vi. 8—23. 2. The 
siege of Plataea. 3. The trial and condemnation of Socrates. 






CHAPTER XIX 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT 

(33 6 -3 2 3 B - c -) 

212. The Macedonians and their Rulers. — Macedonia was a 
country lying north of the Cambunian Mountains and back of 
Chalcidice (see map, p. 152). The people were for the most 
part mountaineers still in the tribal state. They were Aryans in 
speech, but since they did not speak pure Greek and were back- 
ward in culture, they were looked upon as barbarians by their 
more refined city kinsmen of the South. The ruling race in the 
country, however, claimed to be of genuine Hellenic stock, and 
this claim had been allowed by the Greeks, who had permitted 
them to appear as contestants in the Olympian games, — a privi- 
lege, it will be recalled, accorded only to those who could prove 
pure Hellenic ancestry. 

213. Philip of Macedon. — Macedonia first rose to importance 
under Philip II (359-336 B.C.), generally known as Philip of 
Macedon. He was a man of preeminent ability, of wonderful 
address in diplomacy, and of rare genius as an organizer and 
military chieftain. The art of war he had learned in youth as a 
hostage-pupil of Epaminondas of Thebes. The " Macedonian 
phalanx," 1 which he is said to have originated, and which holds 
some such place in the military history of Macedonia as the 
"legion" holds in that of Rome, was simply a modification of 
the Theban phalanx that won the day at Leuctra and again at 
Mantinea. 

With his kingdom settled and consolidated at home, Philip's 
ambition led him to seek the leadership of the Greek states. 

l The phalanx was formed of soldiers drawn up sixteen files deep and armed 
with pikes so long that those of the first five ranks projected beyond the front of 
the column, thus opposing a perfect thicket of spears to the enemy. On level 
ground it was irresistible. 

149 



ISO 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 



214. The Second Sacred War (355-346 B.C.). — Philip quickly 
extended his power over a large part of Thrace and the Greek 
cities of Chalcidice. Meanwhile he was, in" the following way, 
acquiring a commanding position in the affairs of the states of 
Greece proper. 

The Phocians had put to secular use some of the lands which 
at the end of the First Sacred War (sec. 130) had been conse- 
crated to the Delphian Apollo. Taken to task and heavily fined 
for this act by the other members of the Delphian Amphictyony, 
they took possession of the temple and used the treasure in the 
maintenance of a large force of mercenary soldiers. The Amphic- 
tyons, being unable to punish them for their impiety, were forced 
to ask help of Philip, who gladly rendered 
the assistance sought. 

The Phocians were now quickly sub- 
dued. All their cities save one were 
broken up into villages, and the inhabit- 
ants were forced to undertake to pay 
back in yearly installments the treasure 
they had taken from the Delphian shrine. 
The place that the Phocians had held in 
the Delphian Amphictyony was given to 
Philip, upon whom was also bestowed the 
privilege of presiding at the Pythian 
games. The position he had now secured 
was just what Philip had coveted in order 
that he might use it to make himself 
master of all Greece. 

215. Battle of Chaeronea (338 B.C.). — 
Demosthenes at Athens was one of the 
few who seemed to understand the real designs of Philip. With 
all the energy of his wonderful eloquence he strove to stir up the 
Athenians to resist his encroachments. He hurled against him 
his famous " Philippics," speeches so filled with fierce denuncia- 
tion that they have given name to all writings characterized by 
bitter criticism or violent invective. 




Fig. 53. — Demosthenes 
(Vatican Museum) 



PHILIP'S PLAN TO INVADE ASIA 



151 



At length the Athenians and Thebans, aroused by the oratory 
of Demosthenes and by some fresh encroachments of Philip, 
united their forces, and met him upon the memorable field of 
Chseronea in Bceotia. The battle was stubbornly fought, but finally 
went against the allies. The power and authority of Philip were 
now extended and acknowledged throughout Greece (338 B.C.). 

216. Philip's Plan to invade Asia; his Death (336 B.C.). — 
Soon after the battle of Chseronea, Philip convened at Corinth 
a council of the Greek states. His main object in calling the 
congress was to secure aid in an expedition for the conquest of 
the Persian Empire. The exploit of the Ten Thousand Greeks 
had shown the feasibility of such an undertaking (sec. 208). The 
plan was indorsed by the congress. Every Greek city was to 
furnish a contingent for the army of in- 
vasion. Philip was chosen leader of the 
expedition. 

All Greece was now astir with prepara- 
tions for the great enterprise. In the midst 
of all Philip was assassinated, and his son 
Alexander succeeded to his place and 
power. 

217. The Youth of Alexander. — Alex- 
ander was only twenty years of age when 
he came to his father's throne. The spirit 
of the man is shown in the complaint of 
the boy when news of his father's victories 
reached him : " Boys," said he to his play- 
mates, " my father will get ahead of us in 
everything, and will leave nothing great for you or me to do." 

Certain influences under which the boy came in his earliest 
years left a permanent impress upon his mind and character. By 
his mother he was taught to trace his descent from the great 
Achilles, and was incited to emulate his exploits and to make 
him his model in all things. The Iliad, which recounts the 
deeds of that mythical hero, became the prince's inseparable 
companion. 




Fig. 54. — Alexander 

the Great 
(Capitoline Museum) 



152 ALEXANDER THE GREAT 

After his mother's influence, perhaps that of the philosopher 
Aristotle, whom Philip persuaded to become the tutor of the 
youthful Alexander, was the most formative. This great teacher 
implanted in the mind of the young prince a love of literature 
and philosophy, and through his inspiring companionship exer- 
cised over the eager, impulsive boy an influence for good which 
Alexander himself gratefully acknowledged in later years. 

218. The Destruction of Thebes. — For about two years after 
his accession Alexander was kept busy in thwarting conspiracies 
and suppressing open revolts against his authority. Thebes having 
risen against him, he razed the city to the ground, sparing only 
the temples and the house of the poet Pindar, and sold thirty 
thousand of the inhabitants into slavery. Thus was one of the 
most renowned of the cities of Greece blotted out of existence. 

2 19. Alexander crosses the Hellespont ; the Battle of the 
Granicus (334 B.C.). — Alexander was now free to carry out his 
father's scheme in regard to the Asiatic expedition. In the spring 
of 334 B.C. he set out at the head of an army numbering about 
thirty-five thousand men for the conquest of the Persian Empire. 
Grossing the Hellespont, he met on the banks of the Granicus a 
Persian army, over which he gained a decisive victory. All Asia 
Minor now lay open to the invader, and soon practically all of 
its cities and tribes were brought to acknowledge the authority 
of the Macedonian. 2 

220. The Battle of Issus (333 B.C.). — At the northeast corner 
of the Mediterranean lies the plain of Issus. Here Alexander met 
another Persian army, numbering, it is said, six hundred thousand 
men, and inflicted upon it an overwhelming defeat. The king 
himself 3 escaped from the field, and hastened to his capital Susa 
to raise another army to oppose the march of the conqueror. 

2 At Gordium, in Phrygia, Alexander performed an exploit which has given the 
world one of its favorite apothegms. In the temple at this place was a chariot to 
the pole of which a yoke was fastened by a curiously intricate knot. An oracle had 
been spread abroad to the effect that whoever should untie the knot would become 
master of Asia. Alexander attempted the feat. Unable to loosen the knot, he drew 
his sword and cut it. Hence the phrase " cutting the Gordian knot," — meaning a 
short way out of a difficulty. 

3 Darius III, Codomannus (336-330 B.C.). 



V 






3\L A q 







I*** 



Ji 



A 



Jr™ 



a ^ u ^^ n m ,exan ?f\v^«TK a 



-4JV 



S&. 




\ 



WflOpis 
BatJylonT 



^ 



B I 



EMPIRE OF 

ALEXANDER THE 

About 323 B. C. 

March Of AlftYanrifti-- 
60 100 200 300 40C 

Scale ofTVIiles. 



55 


60 65 70 


75 






80 




FT/ 












45 




rstU'J-? ■'<i*" r, eA \ 












• SUfT kd^---^h5T 


: iy\ 












). Ar\tl •< ,-■ \ ^-n^iB 


\ X 












v r— •'" \ »» 6 X 


\ N^— — ~ > - 






















40 






v^-VS— ~^~~ 












1 \ /I*— =S? 


^^\^\./^ 






\ v 






1 .^ s\o G "\ .A s~^ j 






A / 




m &{ 




\exa nd V J/ \ 






2\\ 




\A* 1 \ ^~ 


T^ ^ \ — ^, 


^?<*rA A 


J / 












L: / U-^ 








;3sJ 


^s** 5 ""* 5 ^- 1 \ 1 iBactray =^-^-. 










■^^M\ 




\ j=>- 1 \ , 










^- — ^ w 

.^Hecato 
aspian ^^ 
Jjates/^ p Jut 




■d 


Uv. 






P 1 a t U a 


u a b i a n jiiV y \/ 


^ d /* 






%^x&r\ 




Sk o TVjJr a 




#^y\ 


Ml 


M e * 




30 


\ \ 


Alexandria 1 ^~^Z-— — — \ 


/ 7 S&Vjif 






A- 




^^■^|Persepoli8 


o Carma"jL__4-— - — \ 










^FME-ttSlls 


\_ Salman | -X \ 












^-^p Alexandria S 


"V VTUl 










PaBargaicC^'SsJ 




) 1 W \< 






*s 






^sssd a W D £^i^ 








Jl^ 


25 


j\ \_^!\ vJZ5^ 


p\haJj_3Y Jjkr 










1 % U 




Jt $ \ 




o c 


Ff\ ) 






^~7~X * ab i 






, l 










N^ 


\\ 








V s # 


A 








50 


Authorities: — 














H. Kiepert, 


Atla& Antiquus / \ 












W. Sieglin, 


Alias Antiquus J \ ^ — ■ 






M. 


N.\V«0BK5 




am Greenwich 65 


60 


65 






70 



\J 



THE SIEGE OF TYRE 1 53 

221. The Siege of Tyre (332 B.C.). — Alexander now turned 
to the south, in order to effect the subjugation of Phoenicia. The 
island-city of Tyre, after a memorable siege, was taken by means 
of a mole built with incredible labor through the sea to the city. 
The causeway still remains, uniting the rock with the mainland. 
When at last the city was taken after a siege of seven months, 
eight thousand of the inhabitants were slain and thirty thousand 
sold into slavery. The reduction of Tyre has been pronounced 
the greatest military achievement of Alexander. 

222. Alexander in Egypt. — From Syria Alexander marched 
down into Egypt. The Egyptians made no resistance to him, 
but willingly exchanged masters. While in the country, Alexander 
founded at one of the mouths of the Nile a city named after 
himself Alexandria. Ranke declares this to have been the " first 
city in the world, after the Piraeus at Athens, erected expressly 
for purposes of commerce." The city became the meeting place 
of the East and West; and its importance through many cen- 
turies attests the farsighted wisdom of its founder. 

A less worthy enterprise of the conqueror was his expedition to 
the oasis of Siwah, located in the Libyan desert, where were a 
celebrated temple and oracle of Zeus Ammon. To gratify his 
vanity, as well as to impress his new Oriental subjects, Alexander 
evidently desired to be declared of celestial descent. The priests 
of the temple, in accordance with the wish of the king, gave out 
that the oracle pronounced Alexander to be the son of Zeus and 
the destined ruler of the world. 

223. The Battle of Arbela (331 B.C.). — From Egypt Alexander 
retraced his steps to Syria and marched eastward. At Arbela, 
not far from the ancient Nineveh, his farther advance was dis- 
puted by Darius with an immense army, numbering, if we may 
rely upon our authorities, over a million men. The vast Persian 
host was overthrown with enormous slaughter. Darius fled from 
the field, as he had done at Issus, and later was treacherously 
killed by an attendant. 

The battle of Arbela was one of the decisive combats of history. 
It marked the end of the long struggle between the East and the 



154 ALEXANDER THE GREAT 

West, between Persia and Greece, and prepared the way for the 
spread of Hellenic civilization over all Western Asia. 

224. Alexander at Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis. — From the 
field of Arbela Alexander marched south to Babylon, which opened 
its gates to him without opposition. Susa was next entered by 
the conqueror. Here he seized incredible quantities of gold and 
silver ($57,000,000, it is said), the treasure of the Great King. 

From Susa Alexander's march was directed to Persepolis, where 
he secured a treasure more than twice as great as that found at 
Susa. Upon Persepolis Alexander wreaked vengeance for all 
Greece had suffered at the hands of the Persians. Many of the 
inhabitants were massacred and others sold into slavery, while 
the palaces of the Persian kings were given to the flames. 4 

Having thus overthrown the power of Darius, Alexander now 
began to regard himself not only as his conqueror but as his 
successor. He assumed the pomp and state of an Oriental mon- 
arch, and required the most obsequious homage from all who 
approached him. His Macedonian companions, unused to paying 
such servile adulation to their king, were much displeased at 
Alexander's conduct, and from this time forward intrigues and 
conspiracies were being constantly formed among them against 
his power and life. 

225. Conquests in India. — With the tribes of what is now 
known as Afghanistan subdued, and the remote countries of 
Bactria and Sogdiana, lying north of the Hindu Kush, conquered 
and settled, Alexander recrossed the mountains and led his army 
down into the rich and crowded plains of India (327 B.C.). Here 
again he showed himself invincible, and received the submission 
of many of the native princes. 

Alexander's desire was to extend his conquests to the Ganges, 
but his soldiers began to murmur at the length and hardness of 
their campaigns, and reluctantly he turned back. His return 
route lay through the ancient Gedrosia, now Beluchistan, a region 
frightful with burning deserts, amidst which his soldiers endured 
almost incredible privations and sufferings. After a trying and 

4 Read Dryden's Alexander 's Feast. 



THE PLANS OF ALEXANDER 155 

calamitous march of over two months, Alexander, with the sur- 
vivors of his army, reached Carmania. Here, to his unbounded 
joy, he was joined by Nearchus, the trusted admiral of his fleet, 
whom he had ordered to explore the sea between the Indus and 
the Euphrates. 5 

226. The Plans of Alexander ; the Hellenizing of the World. — 
As the capital of his vast empire, which now stretched from the 
Ionian Sea to the Indus, Alexander chose the ancient Babylon, 
upon the Euphrates, for the reason that such a location of the 
seat of government would help to promote his plans, which aimed 
at nothing less than the union and Hellenizing of the world. 
Not only were the peoples of Asia and Europe to be blended by 
means of colonies, but even the floras of the two continents were 
to be intermingled by the transplanting of plants and trees from 
one continent to the other. Common laws and customs and a 
common language were to unite the nations into one great family. 
Intermarriages were to blend the races. Alexander himself mar- 
ried a daughter of Darius III, and also another of Artaxerxes 
Ochus ; to ten thousand of his soldiers, whom he encouraged to 
take Asiatic wives, he gave magnificent gifts. 

227. The Death of Alexander (323 B.C.). — In the midst of his 
vast projects Alexander was seized by a fever, brought on doubt- 
less by his insane excesses, and died at Babylon, 323 B.C., in the 
thirty-second year of his age. His soldiers could not let him die 
without seeing him. The watchers of the palace were obliged to 
open the doors to them, and the veterans of a hundred battle- 
fields filed sorrowfully past the couch of their dying commander. 
His body was carried first to Memphis, but afterwards to Alex- 
andria, in Egypt, and there inclosed in a golden coffin, over which 
was raised a splendid mausoleum. His ambition for celestial 
honors was gratified in his death ; for in Egypt and elsewhere 
temples were dedicated to him, and divine worship was paid to 
his statues. 

5 Strange as it may seem, the Greeks had no positive knowledge of what sea the 
Indus emptied into. According to Arrian, when Alexander reached the Indus he at 
first thought that he had struck the upper course of the Nile (Anabasis of Alex- 
ander, vi. 1). 



156 ALEXANDER THE GREAT 

228. Results of Alexander's Conquests. — The remarkable con- 
quests of Alexander had far-reaching consequences. First, they 
ended the long struggle between Persia and Greece, and spread 
Hellenic civilization over Egypt and Western Asia. It is particu- 
larly this spreading abroad of the culture of Greece which makes 
the short-lived Macedonian Empire of such importance in uni- 
versal history. 

Second, the distinction between Greek and barbarian was oblit- 
erated, and the sympathies of men, hitherto so narrow and local, 
were widened, and thus an important preparation was made for 
the reception of the cosmopolitan creed of Christianity. 

Third, the world was given a universal language of culture, 
which was a further preparation for the spread of Christian 
teachings. 

But the evil effects of these conquests were also positive and 
far-reaching. The sudden acquisition by the Greeks of the enor- 
mous wealth of the Persian Empire, and contact with the vices 
and the effeminate luxury of the Oriental nations, had a most 
demoralizing effect upon Hellenic life. Greece became cor- 
rupt, and she in turn corrupted Rome. Thus the civilization 
of classical antiquity was undermined. 

Selections from the Sources. — Plutarch, Life of Alexander. Arrian, 
Anabasis of Alexander, vii. 9, Alexander's speech to his soldiers reminding 
them of the debt they owe to his father ; and vii. 28-30, for an estimate of 
Alexander's character. 

Secondary Works. — Wheeler, B. I., Alexander the Great ; affords a 
most interesting and scholarly treatment of our subject. Dodge, T. A., 
Alexander. Hogarth, D. G., Philip and Alexander of Macedon. Mahaffy, 
J. P., Problems in Greek History, chap, vii, " Practical Politics in the 
Fourth Century"; Survey of Greek Civilization, chap, viii; The Story of 
Alexande?-^ Empire ; and Greek Life and Thought, chap. ii. Holm, vol. hi, 
chaps, xiv-xxvii. Bury, J. B., History of Greece, pp. 681-836. Curteis, 
A. M., Rise of the Macedonian Empire. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Imperialism vs. Home Rule; or, Was 
Demosthenes' policy of opposition to Philip wise ? See Mahaffy's Problems. 
2. Alexander as a god. Bring this into harmony with the ideas of the 
time, both in Greece and in Egypt. This is a subject for mature students. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE GRJECO-ORIENTAL WORLD FROM THE DEATH OF 

ALEXANDER TO THE CONQUEST OF GREECE 

BY THE ROMANS 

(323-I46 B.C.) 

229. Partition of Alexander's Empire. — There was no one who 
could wield the sword that fell from the hand of Alexander. It is 
said that, when dying, being asked to whom the kingdom should 
belong, he replied, " To the strongest," and handed his signet ring 
to his general Perdiccas. But Perdiccas was not strong enough 
to master the difficulties of the situation. Indeed, who is strong 
enough to rule the world? 

Consequently the vast empire created by Alexander's unpar- 
alleled conquests was distracted by the wranglings and wars of 
his successors, and soon was broken into many fragments. 1 Besides 
minor states, 2 three kingdoms of importance rose out of the ruins, 
centering in Macedonia, Syria, and Egypt. All were finally over- 
whelmed by the now rapidly rising power of Rome. In the fol- 
lowing sections we will merely indicate the fortunes of each, and 
add a word concerning the fate of the cities of Greece proper. 

230. Macedonia (323-146 B.C.). — Macedonia was one of the 
first countries east of the Adriatic to come in hostile contact with 
the great military republic of the West (sees. 350 and 352). After 

1 The important battle of this period was the battle of Ipsus, in Phrygia, 301 B.C. 

2 Of these lesser states the following should be noted: 

a. Rhodes. — The city of Rhodes, on the island of the same name, became the 
head of a federation of adjacent island and coast cities, and thus laid the basis of a 
remarkable commercial prosperity and naval power. It was one of the chief centers 
of Hellenistic culture, and acquired a wide fame through its schools of art and rhetoric. 
Julius Caesar and Cicero both studied here under Rhodian teachers of oratory. 

b. Pontus. — Pontus (Greek for sea), a state of Asia Minor, was so called from 
its position upon the Euxine. It was never thoroughly conquered by the Macedo- 
nians. It has a place in history mainly because of the luster shed upon it by the 
transcendent ability of one of its kings, Mithradates the Great (sec. 369). 

157 



158 THE GR/ECO-ORIENTAL WORLD 

much intrigue and a series of wars, the country was finally brought 
into subjection to the Italian power and made into a Roman 
province (146 B.C.). 

231. Syria, or the Kingdom of the Seleucidae (312-65 B.C.). — 
Under its first ruler this kingdom comprised nominally almost all the 
countries of Asia conquered by Alexander, thus stretching from the 
Hellespont to the Indus; but in reality the monarchy embraced 
only Asia Minor, Syria, and the old Assyria and Babylonia. Its 
rulers were called Seleucidae, from the founder of the kingdom, 
Seleucus Nicator. 

Seleucus Nicator (312-281 B.C.), besides being a ruler of unu- 
sual ability, was a most liberal patron of learning and art. He is 
declared to have been "the greatest founder of cities that ever 
lived." Throughout his dominions he founded a vast number, 
some of which endured for many centuries, and were known far 
and wide as homes and centers of Hellenistic civilization. 

The successors of Seleucus Nicator led the kingdom through 
checkered fortunes. On different sides provinces fell away and 
became independent states. 3 Antiochus III (223-187 B.C.), called 
" the Great," raised the kingdom for a short time into great prom- 
inence ; but finally the country was overrun by the Roman legions 
and was made a part of the Roman Republic 4 (63 B.C.). 

232. Kingdom of the Ptolemies in Egypt (323-30 b.c). — The 
Graeco-Egyptian empire of the Ptolemies was by far the most 
important, in its influence upon the civilization of the world, of all 
the kingdoms that owed their origin to the conquests of Alexander. 
The founder of the house and dynasty was Ptolemy I, surnamed 
Soter (323-283 B.C.), a companion of Alexander. 5 

3 The most noteworthy of these was Pergamum, a state in Western Asia Minor 
which became independent upon the death of Seleucus Nicator (281 B.C.). Under 
the patronage of the Romans it gradually grew into a powerful kingdom. Its capital, 
also called Pergamum, became a most noted center of Greek learning and civiliza- 
tion, and through its great library and university gained the renown of being, next to 
Alexandria in Egypt, the greatest city of the Hellenistic world. 

4 Compare sees. 351 and 378. 

5 Upon the partition of the empire of Alexander, Ptolemy had received Egypt, 
with parts of Arabia and Libya. To these he added by conquest Phoenicia, Palestine, 
Coele-Syria, Cyrene, and Cyprus. 



GREECE 



159 



Under Ptolemy, Alexandria became the great depot of exchange 
for the productions of the world. At the entrance of the harbor 
stood the Pharos, or lighthouse, — the first structure of its kind. 
This edifice was reckoned one of the Seven Wonders. 

But it was not alone the exchange of material products that 
was comprehended in Ptolemy's scheme. His aim was to make 
his capital the intellectual center of the world, — the place where 
the arts, sciences, literatures, and even the religions of the world 
should meet and mingle. He founded the famous Museum, a 
sort of college, which became the " University of the East," and 
established the renowned Alexandrian Library. He encouraged 
poets, artists, philosophers, and teachers in all departments of 
learning to settle in Alexandria by conferring upon them immu- 
nities and privileges, and by gifts and a munificent patronage. 
His court embraced the learning and genius of the age. 

Ptolemy Philadelphus (283-247 b.c.) followed closely in the 
footsteps of his father. He added largely to the royal library, and 
extended to scholars the same liberal patronage that his father 
had before him. It was under his direction that the translation 
into Greek of the He'brew Testament was made (sec. 262). 

Altogether the Ptolemies reigned in Egypt almost exactly three 
centuries (323—30 B.C.). The story of the beautiful but dissolute 
Cleopatra, the last of the house of the Ptolemies, belongs properly 
to the history of Rome, which city was now interfering in the affairs 
of the Orient. In the year 30 B.C., the year which marks the death 
of Cleopatra, Egypt was made a Roman province. 7 

233. Greece. — From the subjection of Greece by Philip of 
Macedon to the absorption of Macedonia into the growing domin- 
ions of Rome, the Greek cities of the peninsula were, much of the 
time, under the real or nominal suzerainty of the Macedonian 
kings. But the Greeks were never made for royal subjects, and 
consequently they were in a state of chronic revolt against this 
foreign authority. 

6 " The Museum was the first example of a permanent institution for the cultivation 
of pure science founded by a government ; that was something great " (Holm). 

7 Compare sec. 393. 



i6o 



THE GR^CO-ORIENTAL WORLD 



A matter of special moment in the history of Greece during this 
period was an invasion of the Gauls (278 B.C.), kinsmen of the 
Celtic tribes that about a century before this time had sacked the 
city of Rome (sec. 316). These terrible marauders, pouring down 
from the north, ravaged Greece as far south as Delphi and the 
Pass of Thermopylse. If we may believe the Greek accounts, they 
met with heroic resistance and were driven back with great loss. 
A little later some of the tribes settled in Asia Minor and there 




Fig. 55. — The Dying Gaul. (Capitoline Museum) 
A memorial of the Gallic invasion of Greece in the third century B.C. 

gave name to the province of Galatia. The celebrated Greek 
sculpture, The Dying Gaul, is a most interesting memorial of this 
episode in Greek history (Fig. 55). 

234. The Achaean and the ^Etolian League. — In the third 
century B.C. there arose in Greece two important confederacies, 
known as the Achaean and ^Etolian leagues, whose history em- 
braces almost every matter of interest and instruction in the later 
political life of the Greek cities. 8 These late attempts at federa- 
tion among the Grecian cities were fostered by the intense desire 

8 The Achaean League (281-146 B.C.) was in its beginnings simply a revival of a 
very ancient religious union of the cities of Achaea, but it came finally to embrace all 
the states of the Peloponnesus as well as some cities beyond its limits. It was one 
of the most successful efforts ever made to unite the Greek cities into a real federal 
state. The .ZEtolian League, established about 280 B.C., was composed not of cities 
but of tribes, — chiefly the half-civilized tribes of the mountainous regions of Central 
Greece. 



THE FALL OF CORINTH l6l 

of all patriotic Hellenes to free themselves from the hated arbiter- 
ship of Macedonia. The Greeks had learned at last — but unhap- 
pily too late — that the liberty they prized so highly could be 
maintained only through union. 

Both of the leagues were broken up by Rome. In the year 
146 B.C. Corinth, the most important member of the Achaean 
League, was taken by the Romans, the men were killed, the 
women and children sold into slavery, the rich art treasures of 
the city sent as trophies to Rome, and its temples and other 
buildings given to the flames (sec. 353). Later, all Greece, under 
the name of Achsea, was reduced to the status of a province of 
the Roman Empire. 

235. Conclusion. — We have now traced the political fortunes 
of the Greek race through about six centuries of authentic history. 
In succeeding chapters, in order to render more complete the 
picture we have endeavored to draw of ancient Hellas, we shall 
add some details respecting Hellenic art, literature, philosophy, 
and society. Even a short study of these matters will help us to 
form a more adequate conception of that wonderful, many-sided 
genius of the Hellenic race which enabled Hellas, " captured, to 
lead captive her captor." 

Selections from the Sources. — Plutarch, Life of Philopcemen. 

Secondary Works. — Holm, vol. iv ; the best history in English of the 
period. Gardner, P., New Chapters in Greek History, chap, xv, " The 
Successors of Alexander and Greek Civilization in the East." Mahaffy, 
J. P., The Story of Alexander's Empire ; Greek Life and Thought from the 
Age of Alexander to the Roman Conquest ; A Survey of Greek Civilization, 
chaps, viii and ix; and The Progress of Hellenism hi Alexander's Empire. 
Greenidge, A. H. J., Handbook of Greek Constitutional History, chap. vii. 
Freeman, E. A., History of Federal Government, chaps, v-ix, gives with 
great fullness the history of the Achasan League. Sayce, A. H., The 
Religions of A?tcient Egypt and Babylonia, Lect. x, " The Place of the 
Egyptian Religion in the History of Theology." Davidson, T., The Edu- 
cation of the Greek People, chap, viii, " Greek Education in Contact with 
the Great Eastern World." Draper, J. W., Intellectual Development of 
Europe ; has an account of the Alexandrian Museum. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The Museum and Library at Alexandria. 
2. The Achaean League. See Freeman and Greenidge. 3. Daphne at 
Antioch. 4. Rhodes as a center of Hellenistic culture. See Holm. 



CHAPTER XXI 
GREEK ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE, AND PAINTING 

236. Introductory: the Greek Sense of Beauty. — The Greeks 
were artists by nature. Everything they made, from the shrines 
for their gods to the meanest utensils of domestic use, was beau- 
tiful. " Ugliness gave them pain like a blow." Beauty they placed 
next to holiness ; indeed, they almost or quite made beauty and 
goodness the same thing. They are said to have thought it strange 
that Socrates was good, seeing he was so homely. 

I. Architecture 

237. Orders of Greek Architecture. — By the close of the sixth 
century B.C. Greek architecture had made great advance and pre- 
sented three distinct styles or orders. These are known as the 
Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian (Fig. 56). They are distin- 
guished from one another chiefly by differences in the proportions 
and the ornamentation of the column. 

The Doric column is without a base and has a perfectly plain 
capital. The Ionic column is characterized by the spiral volutes 
of the capital. This form was principally employed by the Greeks 
of Ionia, whence its name. The Corinthian order is distinguished 
by its rich capital, formed of acanthus leaves. This order was not 
much employed in Greece before the time of Alexander the Great. 

The entire structure was made to harmonize with its supporting 
columns. The general characteristics of the orders are happily 
suggested by the terms we use when we speak of the " severe " 
Doric, the " graceful " Ionic, and the " ornate " Corinthian. 

Speaking of the place which these styles held in Greek archi- 
tecture and have held in that of the world since Greek times, an 
eminent authority says, "We may admit that the invention and 
perfecting of these orders of Greek architecture has been (with 

162 



THE DELPHIAN TEMPLE 



163 



one exception — the introduction of the arch) the most important 
event in the architectural history of the world." 

It was religious feeling which created the noblest monuments 
of the architectural genius of Hellas. Hence in the few words 
which we shall have to say about Greek buildings our attention 
will be confined almost exclusively to the temples of Greece. 

238. The Delphian Temple. — One of the oldest temple sites 
in Greece was the spot at Delphi whence issued the mysterious 
vapors (sec. 126). In the year 548 b.c. the temple then standing 




Fig. 56. — Orders of Greek Architecture 

was destroyed by fire. All the cities and states of Hellas con- 
tributed to its rebuilding. The later structure was impressive both 
from its colossal size and the massive simplicity that characterizes 
the Doric style of architecture. It was crowded with the spoils of 
many battlefields, with the rich gifts of kings, and with rare works 
of art. 1 After remaining long secure, through the awe and rever- 
ence which its oracle inspired, it finally suffered repeated spolia- 
tion. The Phocians despoiled the temple of a treasure equivalent, 

1 Besides being in a sense museums, the temples of the Greeks were also banks of 
deposit. The priests often loaned out on interest the money deposited with them, 
the revenue from this source being added to that from the leased lands of the temple 
and from the tithes of war booty to meet the expenses of the services of the shrine. 
Usually the temple property in Greece was managed solely by the priests, but the 
treasure of the Parthenon at Athens formed an exception to this rule. The treasure 



1 64 GREEK ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE 

it is estimated, to more than $10,000,000 (sec. 214), and later 
the Romans seem to have stripped it bare of its art treasures. 

239. The Athenian Parthenon. — We have already glanced at 
the Parthenon, the sanctuary of the virgin goddess Athena, upon 
the Acropolis at Athens (sec. 194). This temple, which is built 
in the Doric order, of marble from the neighboring Pentelicus, 
is regarded as the finest specimen of Greek architecture. The 
art exhibited in its construction is an art of ideal perfection. 
After standing for more than two thousand years, and having 
served successively as a pagan temple, a Christian church, and a 
Mohammedan mosque, it finally was made to serve as a Turkish 
powder magazine in a war with the Venetians in 1687. Unfortu- 
nately a bomb ignited the magazine, and more than half of 
the wonderful masterpiece was shivered into fragments. Even 
in its ruined state the structure constitutes the most highly 
prized memorial that we possess of the builders of the ancient 
world. 

240. Olympia and the Temple of Zeus Olympius. — The sacred 
plain of the Alpheus in Elis was, as we have learned, the spot 
where were held the celebrated Olympian games. Here was raised 
a magnificent Doric temple consecrated to Zeus Olympius, and 
around it were grouped a vast number of shrines, treasure-houses, 
porticoes, and various other structures. 

For many centuries these buildings adorned the consecrated 
spot and witnessed the recurring festivals. But in the fifth cen- 
tury of our era the Christian Emperor Theodosius II ordered 
their destruction, as monuments of paganism, and the splendid 
structures were given to the flames. Earthquakes, landslips, and 
the floods of the Alpheus completed in time the work of destruc- 
tion and buried the ruins beneath a thick layer of earth. 

For centuries the desolate spot remained unvisited ; but late 
in the last century the Germans excavated the temple site and 

here belonged to the state, and was controlled and disposed of by the vote of the 
people. Even the personal property of the goddess, the gold drapery of the statue, 
which was worth about $600,000, could be used in case of great need; but it must be 
replaced in due time, with a fair interest. 



THEATERS 



I6 5 



the sites of about forty other structures. The remains unearthed 
were of such an extensive nature as to make possible a restoration 
of the noble assemblage of buildings which we may believe re- 
creates with fidelity the scene looked upon by the visitor to 
Olympia in the days of its architectural glory (see Frontispiece). 
241. Theaters. — The Greek theater was semicircular in form, 
and open to the sky, as shown in the accompanying cut. The 
structure comprised three divisions : first, the semicircle of seats 
for the spectators ; second, the orchestra, or dancing place for the 




Fig. 57. — The Theater of Dionysus at Athens 
(From a photograph) 

chorus, which embraced the space between the lower range of 
seats and the stage ; and third, the stage, a narrow platform for 
the actors. 

The most noted of Greek theaters was the Theater of Dio- 
nysus at Athens, which was the model of all the others. It was 
cut partly in the native rock on the southeastern slope of the 
Acropolis, the Greeks in the construction of their theaters gener- 
ally taking advantage of a hillside. There were about one hundred 
rows of seats, the lowest, bordering the orchestra, consisting, in 
later times, of sixty-seven marble armchairs. The structure, it is 
said, would hold thirty thousand spectators. 



166 GREEK ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE 



II. Sculpture 



tf# 



M 



242 . Traces of Oriental Influence in Early Greek Art. — The 
earliest art in Greece to which we can without hesitation apply 
the term " Hellenic " exhibits distinct marks of Oriental influ- 
ence. From both Egypt and Assyria the early 
Greek artist received models in gold, silver, 
ivory, and other material, decorative designs, 
and a knowledge of technical processes. From 
the beginning of the sixth century B.C. forward 
to the fifth we can trace clearly the growing 
excellence of Greek sculpture until it blooms 
in the supreme beauty of the art of the Peri- 
clean Age. 

243. The Archaic Period, down to the Persian 
Wars. — The oldest remains of Greek sculpture 
are specimens of carvings in relief. A good ex- 
ample of this archaic phase of Greek sculpture 
is seen in the tombstone of Aristion (Fig. 58), 
discovered in Attica in 1838. The date of this 
work is placed at about 550 B.C. A sort of 
Assyrian rigidity still binds the limbs of the 
figure, yet there are suggestions of the grace 
and freedom of a truer and higher art. 

244. Influence of the Olympian Games and the 
Gymnasium upon Greek Sculpture. — Towards 
the latter part of the sixth century B.C. it be- 
came the custom to set up images of the victors 
in the Olympian games. Now in representing 
the figures of the gods it was thought, if not 
impious, at least presumptuous, to change 

materially the conventional forms ; but in the representation of 
the forms of mere men the sculptor was bound by no conven- 
tionalism, being perfectly free to exercise his skill and genius in 
handling his subject. Progress and improvement now became 
possible. 



V\OA/a>frl%) OTJ I o> 



Fig. 58. — Stele 
of Aristion 

Example of archaic 
Attic sculpture 



PERFECTION OF GREEK SCULPTURE 



167 




In still another way did the Olympian contests and the exer- 
cises of the gymnasia exert a most helpful influence upon Greek 
sculpture. They afforded the artist 
unrivaled opportunities for the study 
of the human form. "The whole 
race," as Symonds says, " lived out 
its sculpture and its painting, re- 
hearsed, as it were, the great works 
of Phidias and Polygnotus, in phys- 
ical exercises, before it learned to ex- 
press itself in marble or in color." 

245. The Period of Perfection of 
Greek Sculpture ; Phidias. — Greek 
sculpture was at its best during the 
last half of the fifth century B.C. 2 
The preeminent sculptor of this 
period of perfection was Phidias. It 
was his genius which, as already mentioned, created the marvelous 
figures of the pediments and of the frieze of the Parthenon. 3 

The most celebrated of his colossal 
sculptures were the statue of Athena 
within the Parthenon and that of 
Olympian Zeus in the temple at Olympia. 
The statue of Athena was of gigantic size, 
being about forty feet in height, and was 
constructed of ivory and gold, the hair, 
weapons, and drapery being of the latter 
material. The statue of Olympian Zeus 
was also of ivory and gold. It was sixty 
feet high and represented the god seated 



Fig. 59. — The Wrestlers 

' Particularly were the games pro- 
motive of sculpture, since they af- 
forded the sculptor living models 
for his art " (sec. 129) 




Fig. 60. — Head of the 
Olympian Zeus by 
Phidias. (From a coin) 



2 Almost all the masterpieces of the Greek sculptors have perished ; they are known 
to us for the most part only through Roman copies. 

3 The subject of the wonderful frieze was the procession which formed the most 
important feature of an Athenian festival celebrated every four years in honor of the 
patron goddess of Athens. The best part of the frieze is now in the British Museum, 
the Parthenon having been largely despoiled of its coronal of sculptures by Lord 
Elgin. Read Lord Byron's The Curse of Minerva. To the poet Lord Elgin's act 
appeared worse than vandalism. 



168 GREEK ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE 



on his throne. The colossal proportions of this wonderful work, as 
well as the lofty yet benign aspect of the countenance, harmonized 
well with the popular conception of the majesty and grace of the 
"father of gods and men." It was thought a great misfortune to 
die without having seen the Olympian Zeus. 4 The statue was in 
existence for eight hundred years. It is believed to have been 
carried to Constantinople and to have perished there in a confla- 
gration in the fifth 
century a.d. 

246. Praxiteles. — 
Though Greek sculp- 
ture attained its highest 
perfection in the fifth 
century, still the fol- 
lowing century pro- 
duced sculptors whose 
work possessed quali- 
ties of rare excellence. 
Xhe most eminent 
sculptor of this period 
was Praxiteles (period 
of activity about 360- 
340 B.C.), of whom it 
has been said that he 
" rendered into stone 
the moods of the soul." 
Among his chief pieces may be mentioned the Cnidian Aphrodite 
and the Hermes. The last was set up at Olympia. To the great 
joy of archaeologists this precious memorial of antiquity was dis- 
covered in 1877, so that now we possess an undoubtedly original 
work of one of the great masters of Greek sculpture (Fig. 61). 

4 " Phidias avowed that he took his idea from the representation which Homer 
gives in the first book of the Iliad in the passage thus translated by Pope : 

" He spake, and awful bends his sable brow, 
Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod, 
The stamp of fate and sanction of the god. 
High heaven with reverence the dread signal took, 




Fig. 61. — Hermes with the Infant 
Dionysus 

An original work of Praxiteles, found in 1877 
at Olympia 



And all Olympus to the center shook." 



Bulfinch, Age of Fable. 



THE SCHOOL OF RHODES 



169 



247. The School of Rhodes. — The Grseco-Oriental period saw 
the rise at Rhodes, at this time the commercial emporium of the 
Eastern Mediterranean, of a celebrated school of sculpture. Very 
many of the prized works of Greek art in our museums were exe- 
cuted by members of this Rhodian school. One of the most noted 
of the Rhodian sculptors was Chares, the designer of the cele- 
brated Colossus of Rhodes (about 280 B.C.). This work 
was reckoned as one of the wonders of the world. 5 





Fig. 62. — The Laocoon Group 
(Vatican, Rome) 



Fig. 63. — Nike or Vic- 
tory OF PiEONIUS 
(Found at Olympia) 



But the most remarkable piece of sculpture attributed to mem- 
bers of the school of Rhodes is the celebrated group known as 
the Laocoon (Fig. 62), found at Rome in 1506. The subject 
represented is the unjust punishment inflicted, through the agency 
of two serpents, upon Laocoon, a Trojan priest and seer, and his 
two sons, by some gods whom he had innocently offended. Of 
this masterpiece it has been said that " it expresses physical pain 
and passion better than any other existing group of statuary." 

5 The statue was not quite as large as the statue of Liberty in New York harbor 
After standing about half a century, the Colossus was overthrown by an earthquake. 
Nine hundred years later it was broken up and sold for old metal. 



IJO GREEK ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE 



III. Painting 



248. Introductory. — The Greek artists never brought the art 
of painting to that perfection which they reached in sculpture. 
One reason for this was that paintings were never, like statues, 
objects of veneration ; hence less attention 
was directed to them. 6 

With the exception of antique vases, a 
few patches of mural decoration, some 
interesting portraits (Fig. 64), dating prob- 
ably from the second century after Christ, 
found in graves in Lower Egypt, and 
colored sculpturings, 7 all specimens of 
Greek painting have perished. Not a single 
work of any great painter of antiquity has 
survived the accidents of time. Conse- 
quently our knowledge of Greek painting 
is derived chiefly from the description by 
the ancient writers of renowned works, and 
their anecdotes of great painters. 

249. Polygnotus. — Polygnotus (flour- 
ished 475-455 B.C.) has been called the 
Prometheus of painting, because he was 
the first to give fire and animation to the 
expression of the countenance. "In his 
hand," it is affirmed, " the human features 
became for the first time the mirror of the 
soul." Of a Polyxena 8 painted by this 
great master it was said that " she carried 
in her eyelids the whole history of the Trojan War." 




Fig. 64. — Portrait 

in Wax Paint 
(From the Fayum) 

" These paintings [Fayum 
portraits] give us a bet- 
ter idea of what ancient 
painting was, and what 
a high state it must 
have reached in its 
prime, than anything 
yet known, excepting 
some Pompeian fres- 
coes" (Petrie) 



6 The influence of religion upon the painter's art is illustrated by the Italian 
Renaissance, when painting entered the service of the Church (sec. 680). 

1 It is difficult for us to believe that the Greeks painted their statues and the 
surfaces of their stone buildings; but the recent discovery of statues and carved 
stones with the colors still upon them has placed the matter beyond all doubt. 

8 Polyxena was a daughter of the Trojan Priam, famous for her beauty and 
sufferings. 



ZEUXIS AND PARRHASIUS 171 

250. Zeuxis and Parrhasius. — These great artists lived and 
painted in the later years of the fifth century B.C. Zeuxis, such is 
the story, painted a cluster of grapes which so closely imitated 
the real fruit that the birds pecked at them. His rival, for his 
piece, painted a curtain. Zeuxis asked Parrhasius to draw aside 
the veil and exhibit his picture. " I confess I am surpassed," 
generously admitted Zeuxis to his rival ; "I deceived birds, but 
you have deceived the eyes of an experienced artist." 

251. Apelles. — Apelles, the "Raphael of antiquity," was the 
court painter of Alexander the Great. He was such a consum- 
mate master of the art of painting and carried it to such a state 
of perfection that the ancient writers spoke of it as the "Art of 
Apelles." After him the art declined, and no other really great 
name appears. 

Selection from the Sources. — Pausanias, x. 25-31 ; description of the 
paintings of Polygnotus at Delphi. 

Secondary Works. — Collignon, A Manual of Greek Archceology ; has 
valuable references in connection with each chapter. Perrot, G., and 
Chipiez, C, History of Art in Primitive Greece, 2 vols. Gardner, E. A., 
Ancient Athens and Handbook of Greek Sculpture. Mitchell, L. M., His- 
tory of Ancient Sculpture (new ed.). Mach, E. VON, Greek Sculpture : Its 
Spirit and Principles. Tarbell, F. B., A History of Greek Art. Butler, 
H. C, Story of Athens. Harrison, J. E., Introductory Studies in Greek 
Art. Teachers will enjoy Pater, W., Greek Studies. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The relation of the art of the Mycenaean 
Age to that of the classical period in Greece. 2. The friezes of the Par- 
thenon. 3. The Great Altar of Zeus Soter at Pergamum. The remarkable 
sculptures of this monument were exhumed on the ancient acropolis of 
Pergamum during the years 1 878-1 886. The figures, which were in high 
relief and of colossal size, decorated the four sides of the substruction of 
a great altar dedicated to Zeus the Deliverer, in commemoration of the vic- 
tory of the Greeks over the Gallic invaders of Asia Minor (sec. 233). The 
altar is supposed to have been built by King Eumenes II (197-159 B.C.). 
The subject of the sculpturings was the mythical contest of the gods with 
the earth-born giants, which struggle seemed to the Greeks the counterpart 
of their own terrific fight with the uncouth and savage Gauls. The reliefs 
are now in the Berlin Museum. 4. The influence of the gymnasium upon 
Greek art. 5. Greek painting as represented by the wax-paint portraits 
found in Egyptian cemeteries. 



CHAPTER XXII 



GREEK LITERATURE 



252. The Greeks as Literary Artists It was that same exqui- 
site sense of beauty which made the Greeks artists in marble that 
made them also artists in language. " Of all the beautiful things 

which they created," says 
Professor Jebb, "their 
own language was the 
most beautiful." This 
language they wrought 
into epics and lyrics and 
dramas and histories and 
orations as incomparable 
in form and beauty as 
their temples and statues. 
253. The Homeric 
Poems; their Author- 
ship. — The earliest 
specimens of Greek 
poetry, as we have already 
learned (sec. 133), are 
the so-called " Homeric 
poems," consisting of the 
Iliad and the Odyssey. 
Until the rise of modern 
German criticism these 
poems were almost uni- 
versally ascribed to a single bard named Homer, who was believed 
to have lived about the middle of the ninth century B.C., one 
or two centuries after the events commemorated in his poems. 
Tradition represents seven different cities as contending for the 
honor of having been his birthplace. He traveled widely (so it 

172 




Fig. 65. — Homer 



LYRIC POETRY: PINDAR 173 

was believed), lost his sight, and then as a wandering minstrel 
sang his immortal verses to admiring listeners in the different 
cities of Hellas. 

But it is now the opinion of the majority of scholars that the 
Iliad and the Odyssey, as they stand to-day, are not, either of 
them, the creation of a single poet. They are believed to be the 
work of many bards. The " Wrath of Achilles," however, which 
forms the nucleus of the Iliad, may, with very great probability, be 
ascribed to Homer, whom we may believe to have been the most 
prominent of a brotherhood of bards who nourished about 850 
or 750 B.C. 

254. Hesiod. — Hesiod, who is believed to have lived towards 
the close of the eighth century B.C., was the poet of nature and of 
peasant life in the dim transition age of Hellas. The Homeric 
bards sang of the deeds of heroes, and of a far-away time when 
gods mingled with men. Hesiod sings of common men, and of 
everyday, present duties. His greatest poem is entitled Works 
and Days. This is in the main a sort of farmer's calendar, with 
minute instructions respecting farm labor, and beautiful descrip- 
tive passages of the changing seasons. 

255. Lyric Poetry: Pindar. — As epic poetry, represented by 
the Homeric and Hesiodic poems, was the characteristic pro- 
duction of the earlier part of the first period of Greek literature, 
so was lyric poetry the most noteworthy product of the latter part 
of the period. The ^Eolian island of Lesbos was the hearth and 
home of several of the earlier lyric poets. Among these singers was 
Sappho (about 610-570 B.C.), who was exalted by the Greeks to a 
place next to Homer. Plato calls her the Tenth Muse. Although 
her fame endures, her poetry, excepting a few precious verses, 
has long since perished. Anacreon (period of poetical activity 
about 550-500 B.C.) was a courtier at the time of the Greek 
tyrannies. Simonides of Ceos (556-467 b.c.) lived during the 
Persian Wars. He composed immortal couplets for the monu- 
ments of the fallen heroes of Thermopylae and Salamis. 

But the greatest of the Greek lyric poets, and perhaps the 
greatest of all lyric poets of every age and race, was Pindar 



174 GREEK LITERATURE 

(522-448 b.c). He was born at Thebes, but spent most of his 
time in the cities of Magna Graecia. The greater number of 
Pindar's poems were inspired by the scenes of the national fes- 
tivals. They describe in lofty strains the splendors of the Olym- 
pian chariot races, or the glory of the victors at the Isthmian, the 
Nemean, or the Pythian games. 

256. Origin of the Greek Drama. — The Greek drama, in both 
its branches of tragedy and comedy, grew out of the songs and 
dances instituted in honor of the god of wine, Dionysus. Tragedy 
(goat song, possibly from the accompanying sacrifice of a goat) 
sprang from the graver songs, and comedy (village song) from the 
lighter and more farcical ones. Gradually recital and dialogue 
were added, there being at first but a single speaker, then two, 
and finally three, which last was the classical number. 

Owing to its origin, the Greek drama always retained a reli- 
gious character and, further, presented two distinct features, the 
chorus (the songs and dances) and the dialogue. At first the 
chorus was the all-important part ; but later the dialogue became 
the more prominent portion, the chorus, however, always remain- 
ing an essential feature of the performance. Finally, in the golden 
age of the Attic stage, the chorus dancers and singers were care- 
fully trained at great expense, and the dialogue and choral odes 
formed the masterpiece of some great poet, — and then the Greek 
drama, the most splendid creation of human genius, was complete. 

257. The Three Great Tragic Poets. — -There are three great 
names in Greek tragedy, — ^Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. 
These dramatists all wrote during the splendid period which fol- 
lowed the victories of the Persian Wars. They drew the material 
of their plays chiefly from the myths and legends of the heroic 
age, just as Shakespeare for many of his plays used the legends of 
the semi-historical periods of his own country or of other lands. 
Of the two hundred and more dramas produced by these poets, 
only thirty-two have escaped the accidents of time. 

^Eschylus (525-456 B.C.) knew how to touch the hearts of the 
generation that had won the victories of the Persian Wars, for 
he had fought at Marathon and probably also at Salamis. The 



THE THREE GREAT TRAGIC POETS 



175 



Athenians called him the Father of Tragedy. The central. idea 
of his dramas is that " no mortal -may dare raise his heart too 
high," — that "Zeus tames excessive lifting up of heart." Pro- 
metheus Bound is one of his chief works. Another of his great 
tragedies is Agamemnon, 
thought by some to be his 
masterpiece. Nowhere 'is por- 
trayed with greater power the 
awful vengeance with which the 
implacable Nemesis is armed. 
The theme of his The Persians 
was the defeat of Xerxes and 
his host, which afforded the poet 
a good opportunity " to state 
his philosophy of Nemesis, here 
being a splendid tragic instance 
of pride humbled, of greatness 
brought to nothing, through one 
man's impiety and pride." 

Sophocles (about 496- 
405 B.C.) while yet a youth 
gained the prize in a poetic 
contest with yEschylus. Plu- 
tarch says that yEschylus was so 
chagrined by his defeat that he 
left Athens and retired to Sicily. 
Sophocles now became the 
leader of tragedy at Athens. 
He lived through nearly a cen- 
tury, — -a century, too, that 
comprised the most brilliant 
period of the life of Hellas. His dramas were perfect works of 
art. 1 The central idea of his pieces is the same as that which 

1 The chief works of Sophocles are (Edipus Tyrannies, CEdipus Coloneus, and 
Antigone, all of which are founded upon the old tales of the prehistoric royal line 
of Thebes. 




Fig. 66. — Sophocles. 
Rome) 



(Lateran, 



176 GREEK LITERATURE 

characterizes those of ^Eschylus, namely, that self-will and insolent 
pride arouse the righteous indignation of the gods, and that no 
mortal can contend successfully against the will of Zeus. 

Euripides (480-406 B.C.) was a more popular dramatist than 
either ^Eschylus or Sophocles. His fame passed far beyond the 
limits of Greece. Plutarch says that the Sicilians were so fond 
of his lines that many of the Athenian prisoners, taken before 
Syracuse, bought their liberty by teaching their masters his 
verses. 

258. Comedy : Aristophanes. — Foremost among all writers of 
comedy must be placed Aristophanes (about 450-385 B.C.). He 
introduces us to the everyday life of the least admirable classes of 
Athenian society. Four of his most noted works are the Clouds, 
the Knights, the Birds, and the Wasps. 

259. The Three Great Historians. — Poetry is the first form of 
literary expression among all peoples. So we must not be surprised 
to find that it was not until two centuries or more after the com- 
position of the Homeric poems, that is about the sixth century B.C., 
that prose writing appeared among the Greeks. Historical com- 
position was then first cultivated. We can speak briefly of only 
three historians — Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon — whose 
names were cherished among the ancients, and whose writings are 
highly valued by ourselves. 

Herodotus (about 484—425 B.C.), born at Halicarnassus, in Asia 
Minor, is called the Father of History. He traveled over much 
of the then known world, visiting Italy, Egypt, and Babylonia, and 
described as an eyewitness, with a never-failing vivacity and fresh- 
ness, the wonders of the different lands he had seen. Herodotus 
lived in a story-telling age, and he is himself an inimitable story- 
teller. To him we are indebted for a large part of the tales of 
antiquity, — stories of men and events which we never tire of 
repeating. He was overcredulous, and was often imposed upon 
by his guides in Egypt and at Babylon ■ but he describes with 
great care and accuracy what he himself saw. The central theme 
of his great history is the Persian Wars, the struggle between Asia 
and Greece. 



ORATORY 



177 




Thucydides (about 471-400 B.C.), though not so popular an 
historian as Herodotus, was a much more philosophical writer. 
He held a command during the earlier years of the Peloponnesian 
War, but having incurred the displeasure of the Athenians he was 
sent into the exile which afforded him leisure to compose his his- 
tory of that great struggle. Thucydides died before his task was 
completed. 2 His work is considered 
a model of historical writing. Demos- 
thenes read and reread his writings to 
improve his own style ; and the greatest 
orators and historians of modern times 
have been equally diligent students of 
the work of the great Athenian. 

Xenophon (about 445-355 b.c.) was r 
an Athenian, and is known both as a I 
general and a writer. The works that 
render his name so familiar are his Fig. 67. Thucydides 

a j , . , , .-,,. ,. (National Museum, Naples) 

Anabasis, a simple yet thrilling narrative v - ■ 

of the expedition of the Ten Thousand Greeks (sec. 208), and his 

Memorabilia, or "Recollections" of Socrates. 

260. Oratory; Influence of Democratic Institutions. — The art 
of oratory among the Greeks was fostered and developed by the 
generally democratic character of their institutions. The public 
assemblies of the democratic cities were great debating clubs, 
open to all. The gift of eloquence secured for its possessor a sure 
preeminence. The great jury courts of Athens (sec. 193) were 
also schools of oratory; for every citizen there was obliged to be 
his own advocate and to defend his own case. Hence the atten- 
tion bestowed upon public speaking, and the high degree of per- 
fection attained by the Greeks in the difficult art of persuasion. 

261. Demosthenes; his Oration on the Crown. — It has been 
the fortune of Demosthenes (385-322 B.C.) to have his name 
become throughout the world the synonym of eloquence. 3 The 

2 His history breaks off abruptly in the twenty-first year of the war. The 
Hellenica of Xenophon forms a continuation of the interrupted narrative. 

3 Lysias (458-378? B.C.), Isocrates (436-338 B.C.), and Issus (b. about 420 B.C.) 
were all noted forerunners of Demosthenes. 



178 GREEK LITERATURE 

labors and struggles by which, according to tradition, he achieved 
excellence in his art are held up anew to each generation of youth 
as guides of the path to success. Respecting the several orations 
of Demosthenes against Philip of Macedon we have already 
spoken (sec. 215). 

The latter part of the life of Demosthenes is intertwined with 
that of another and rival Athenian orator, yEschines. For his 
services to the state, the Athenians awarded to Demosthenes a 
crown of gold. ^Eschines, along with other enemies of the orator, 
attacked this measure of the assembly and brought the matter 
to a trial. All Athens and strangers from far and near gathered 
to hear the rival orators ; for every matter at Athens, as we 
have seen, was decided by a great debate. Demosthenes made 
the grandest effort of his life. His address, known as the Ora- 
tion on the Crown, has been declared to be " the most polished 
and powerful effort of human oratory." It was an unanswerable 
defense by Demosthenes of his whole policy of opposition to 
Philip of Macedon, and of his counsel to the Athenians to try 
doubtful battle with him on the fatal field of Chasronea (sec. 215). 
The refrain that runs through all the speech is this : It is better 
to have fought at Chasronea and to have left our dead on the 
lost field, than never to have undertaken battle in defense of the 
liberties of Hellas. It was ours to do our duty, the issue rested 
with the gods. 4 

262. The Alexandrian Age (300-146 B.C.). — Under the Ptole- 
mies Alexandria in Egypt became the center of literary activity, 
hence the term "Alexandrian," applied to the literature of the 
age. The great Museum and Library of the Ptolemies afforded in 
that capital such facilities for students and authors as existed in 
no other city in the world. But the creative age of Greek litera- 
ture was over. With the loss of political liberty and the decay 
of faith in the old religion, literature was cut off from its sources 
of inspiration. Consequently the Alexandrian literature lacked 

4 It should be borne in mind that the oration was given in the year 330 B.C., 
when the Macedonian power was supreme, with Alexander lord of both the East 
and the West. 



GfLECO-ROMAN WRITERS 1 79 

freshness and originality. It was imitative, critical, and learned. 
The writers of the period were commentators and translators. 

One of the most important literary undertakings of the age was 
the translation of the Old Testament of the Hebrew Scriptures 
into Greek. From the traditional number of translators (seventy) 
the version is known as the Septuagint. 

Among the poets of the period one name, and only one, stands 
out clear and preeminent. This is that of Theocritus, a Sicilian 
poet, who wrote at Alexandria under Ptolemy Philadelphus. His 
idyls are charming pictures of Sicilian pastoral life. 

263. Conclusion: Graeco-Roman Writers. — After the Roman 
conquest of Greece, the center of Greek literary activity shifted 
from Alexandria to Rome. Hence Greek literature now passes into 
what is known as its Graeco-Roman period (146 B.c-527 a.d.). 

The most noted historical writer of the first part of this period 
was Polybius (d. 121 B.C.), who wrote a history of the Roman 
conquests from 264 to 146 B.C. His work, though it has reached 
us in a sadly mutilated state, is of great worth; for Polybius wrote 
of matters that had become history in his own day. He had lived 
to see the greater part of the world he knew absorbed by the 
ever-growing power of the Imperial City. 

Plutarch (b. about a.d. 40), " the prince of biographers," will 
always live in literature as the author of the Parallel Lives, in 
which, with great wealth of illustrative anecdotes, he compares or 
contrasts Greek and Roman statesmen and soldiers. 

Selections from the Sources. — Homer, Iliad, vi. 370-481 ; the parting 
of Andromache and Hector. ^Eschylus, Prometheus Bound, 342-378 ; the 
lament of Prometheus. 

Secondary Works. — Jebb, R. C, Primer of Greek Literature; and 
Attic Orators, 2 vols. Church, A. J., Stories from the Greek Tragedians. 
Felton, C. C, Greece, Ancient and Modern, vol. ii, pp. n 1-246; six lec- 
tures on the orators of Greece. Mahaffy, J. P., History of Classical 
Greek Literatu?-e, 2 vols. Jevons, F. B., History of Greek Literature. Bar- 
NETT, L. D., The Greek Dra?na (Primer). Wright, J. H., Masterpieces of 
Greek Literahire. Moulton, R. G., Ancient Classical Drama; for teachers. 
Symonds, J. A., Studies of the Greek Poets. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The Antigone. 2. The orators Lysias 
and Isocrates. 3. The Odes of Pindar. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE 

264. The Seven Sages ; the Forerunners. — About the sixth cen- 
tury B.C. there lived in different parts of Hellas many persons of 
real or reputed originality and wisdom. Among these were seven 
men, called the Seven Sages, who held the place of preeminence. 1 
The wise sayings — such as " Know thyself " and " Nothing in 
excess " — attributed to them are beyond number. 

While the maxims and proverbs ascribed to the sages, like the 
so-called proverbs of Solomon, contain a vast amount of practical 
wisdom, they do not constitute philosophy proper, which is a sys- 
tematic search for the reason and causes of things. They form 
simply the introduction or prelude to Greek philosophy. 

265. The Ionic Natural Philosophers; Thales. — The first 
Greek school of philosophy grew up in the cities of Ionia, in Asia 
Minor, where almost all forms of Hellenic culture seem to have 
had their beginnings. The founder of the school was Thales of 
Miletus 2 (b. about 640 B.C.), the Father of Greek Philosophy. 

Thales visited Egypt, and it is probable that what he learned 
there formed the basis of his work in geometry and astronomy. 
He is said to have taught the Egyptians how to measure the 
height of the pyramids by means of their shadows. 

Thales taught, as did the other Ionic philosophers, that there 
are four elements, earth, water, air, and fire. Out of these four 
elements all things in heaven and earth were supposed to be made. 

266. Pythagoras. — Pythagoras (about 580-500 B.C.) was born 
on the island of Samos, whence his title of the " Samian sage." 
The most of his later years were passed at Croton, in Southern 

1 As in the case of the Seven Wonders of the World, ancient writers were not 
always agreed as to what names should be accorded the honor of enrollment in the 
sacred number. Thales, Solon, Periander, Cleobulus, Chilo, Bias, and Pittacus are, 
however, usually reckoned as the Seven Wise Men. 

2 Other members of the school were Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Heraclitus. 

180 






ANAXAGORAS l8l 

Italy, where he became the founder of a celebrated brotherhood 
or association. Legend tells how his pupils, in the first years of 
their novitiate, were never allowed to look upon their master ; how 
they listened to his lectures from behind a curtain ; and how in 
debate they used no other argument than the words Ipse dixit 
(He himself said so). It is to Pythagoras, according to the 
legend, that we are indebted for the word philosopher. Being 
asked of what he was master, he replied that he was simply a 
" philosopher," that is, a " lover of wisdom." 

In astronomy the Pythagoreans — it is impossible to separate 
the teachings of Pythagoras himself from those of his disciples 
— held views which anticipated by two thousand years those of 
Copernicus and his school. They taught that the earth is a sphere, 
and that it, together with the other planets, revolves about a 
central globe of fire, " the hearth or altar of the universe." 

267. Anaxagoras. — Anaxagoras (500-427? B.C.) was the first 
Greek philosopher who made mind, instead of necessity or chance, 
the arranging and harmonizing force of the universe. " Reason 
rules the world " was his first maxim. Anaxagoras was far in 
advance of his age. He ventured to believe that the moon was 
somewhat like the earth, and inhabited ; and taught that the sun 
was not a god, but a glowing rock, as large, probably, as the 
Peloponnesus. He suffered the fate of Galileo in a later age ; he 
was charged with impiety and exiled. Yet this did not disturb the 
serenity of his mind. In banishment he said, " It is not I who 
have lost the Athenians, but the Athenians who have lost me." 3 

268. The Sophists. — The Sophists were a class of philosophers 
or teachers who gave instruction in rhetoric and the art of dispu- 
tation. 4 They traveled about from city to city, and contrary to 
the custom of the Greek philosophers took fees from their pupils. 
They were in general teachers of superficial knowledge, who cared 
more for the dress in which the thought was arrayed than for the 

3 In the teachings of Empedocles (about 492-432 B.C.) and Democritus (about 
460-370 B.C.) we meet with many speculations respecting the constitution of matter 
and the origin of things which are startlingly similar to some of the doctrines held 
by modern scientists. Empedocles has been called the Father of the Evolution Idea. 

4 The most noted of the Sophists were Protagoras, Gorgias, and Prodicus. 



182 



GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE 









thought itself. The better philosophers of the time despised them, 
and applied to them many harsh epithets, taunting them with 
selling wisdom and accusing them of boasting that they could 
"make the worse appear the better reason." 

269. Socrates. — Volumes would not contain all that would 
be both instructive and interesting respecting the teachings and 
speculations of the three great philosophers, Socrates, Plato, and 
Aristotle. We can, however, accord to each only a few words. 
Of these three eminent thinkers, Socrates 
(469-399 B.C.), though surpassed in grasp 
of intellect by both Plato and Aristotle, has 
the firmest hold upon the affections of the 
world. 



Nature, while generous to the philosopher 
in the gifts of soul, was unkind to him in 
the matter of his person. His face was 
ugly as a satyr's, so that he invited the 
shafts of the comic poets of his time. He 
loved to gather a little circle about him in 
the Agora or in the streets, and then to 
draw out his listeners by a series of ingen- 
ious questions. His method was so peculiar 
to himself that it has received the designation of the " Socratic 
dialogue." He has very happily been called an educator, as 
opposed to an instructor. In the young men of his time Socrates 
found many devoted pupils. 5 

This great philosopher believed that the proper study of man- 
kind is man, his favorite maxim being, "Know thyself"; hence 
he is said to have brought philosophy from the heavens and 
introduced it to the homes of men. He taught the purest system 
of morals that the world had yet known, and which has been sur- 
passed only by the precepts of the Great Teacher. He thought 




Fig. 68. — Socrates 

(National Museum, 

Naples) 






5 Socrates was unfortunate in his domestic relations. Xanthippe, his wife, seems 
to have been of a practical turn of mind, and unable to sympathize with the 
abstracted ways of her husband, whose life at home she at times made very uncom- 
fortable. Her name has been handed down as " the synonym of the typical scold." 



PLATO 



183 



himself to be restrained by a guardian spirit from entering upon 
what was inexpedient or wrong. He believed in the immortality 
of the soul and in a Supreme Ruler of the universe, but sometimes 
spoke slightingly of the temples and the popular deities. Of his 
prosecution and condemnation to death on the charge of impiety, 
and of his last hours with his devoted disciples, we have already 
spoken (sec. 209). 

270. Plato. — Plato (427-347 B.C.), "the broad-browed, '•' was 
a philosopher of noble birth, before whom in youth opened a 
brilliant career in the world of Greek affairs ; but, coming under 
the influence of Socrates, he resolved to give up all his prospects 
in politics and devote himself to philosophy. Upon the condem- 
nation and death of his master he 
went into voluntary exile. In foreign 
lands he gathered knowledge and met 
with varied experiences. He finally 
returned to Athens and established a 
school of philosophy in the Academy. 
Here, amid the disciples that thronged 
to his lectures, he passed the greater 
part of his long life — he died 347 B.C., 
at the age of eighty-one years — labor- 
ing incessantly upon the great works 
that bear his name. 

Plato imitated in his writings 
Socrates' method in conversation. 
The discourse is carried on by ques- 
tions and answers, hence the term Dialogues that attaches to his 
works. He attributes to his master, Socrates, much of the phi- 
losophy that he teaches; yet his writings are all deeply tinged with 
his own genius and thought. In the Republic Plato portrays his 
conception of an ideal state. The Phcedo is a record of the last 
conversation of Socrates with his disciples, — an immortal argu- 
ment for the immortality of the soul. 

Plato believed not only in a future life (postexistence) but 
also in preexistence ; teaching that the ideas of reason, or our 




Fig. 69. — Plato 
(National Museum, Naples) 



1 84 



GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE 



intuitions, are reminiscences of a past experience. 6 Plato's doc- 
trines have exerted a profound influence upon all schools of thought 
and philosophies since his day. In some of his precepts he made 
a close approach to the teachings of Christianity. " We ought to 
become like God," he said, "as far as this is possible; and to 
become like him is to become holy and just and wise." 

271. Aristotle. — As Socrates was surpassed by his pupil Plato, 
so in turn was Plato excelled by his disciple Aristotle (384- 
322 B.C.), "the master of those who know." In him the philo- 
sophical genius of the Hellenic in- 
tellect reached its culmination. It 
may be doubted whether all the 
ages since his time have produced 
so profound and powerful an intel- 
lect as his. He was born in the 
Macedonian city of Stagira, and 
hence is frequently called the 
" Stagirite." 

After studying for twenty years 
in the school of Plato, Aristotle ac- 
cepted the invitation of Philip II of 
Macedon to become the preceptor 
of his son, the young prince Alex- 
ander (sec. 217). In after years 
Alexander became the liberal patron 
of his tutor, and, besides giving him 
large sums of money, encouraged and 
aided him in his scientific studies by causing to be sent to him col- 
lections of plants and animals gathered on his distant expeditions. 
At Athens the great philosopher delivered his lectures while 
walking about beneath the trees and porticoes of the Lyceum ; 

6 In the following lines from Wordsworth we catch a glimpse of Plato's doctrine 
of preexistence : 

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting ; Not in entire forgetfulness, 

The soul that rises with us, our life's star, And not in utter nakedness, 

Hath had elsewhere its setting, But trailing clouds of glory, do we come 

And cometh from afar : From God, who is our home. 

Ode on Immortality. 




Fig. 70. — Aristotle 
(Spada Palace, Rome) 



ZENO AND THE STOICS 185 

hence the term peripatetic (from the Greek peripatein, to walk 
about) applied to his philosophy. 

Among the productions of his fertile intellect are works on 
rhetoric, logic, poetry, morals and politics, physics and meta- 
physics. For centuries his works were studied and copied and 
commented upon by both European and Asiatic scholars, in the 
schools of Athens and Rome, of Alexandria and Constantinople. 
Until the time of Bacon in England, for nearly two thousand 
years, Aristotle ruled over the realm of mind with a despotic 
sway. All teachers and philosophers acknowledged him as their 
guide and master. 

272. Zeno and the Stoics. — We are now approaching the 
period when the political life of Hellas was failing, and was 
being fast overshadowed by the greatness of Rome. But the 
intellectual life of the Greek race was by no means eclipsed by 
the calamity that ended its political existence. For centuries 
after that event the poets, scholars, and philosophers of this 
intellectual people led a brilliant career in the schools and uni- 
versities of the Roman world. From among all the philosophers 
of this long period we can select for brief mention only a few. 
And first we shall speak of Zeno and Epicurus, who are noted as 
founders of schools of philosophy that exerted a vast influence 
upon both the thought and the conduct of many centuries. 

Zeno, founder of the celebrated school of the Stoics, 7 lived in 
the third century before our era (about 340-265 B.C.). He taught 
at Athens in a public porch (in Greek, stoa), from which circum- 
stance comes the name applied to his disciples. The Stoics 
inculcated virtue for its own sake. They believed — and it would 
be difficult to frame a better creed — that " man's chief business 
here is to do his duty." They schooled themselves to bear with 
composure any lot that destiny might appoint. Any sign of 
emotion on account of calamity was considered unmanly. Thus 

7 The Stoical philosophy was the outgrowth, in part at least, of that of the Cynics. 
The typical representative of this sect is found in Diogenes, who lived, so the story 
goes, in a wine cask (irldos), and went about Athens by daylight with a lantern, in 
search, as he said, of a man The Cynics were simply a race of pagan hermits. 



186 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE 

a certain Stoic, when told of the sudden death of his son, is said 
merely to have remarked, "Well, I never imagined that I had 
given life to an immortal." 

Stoicism became a favorite system of thought with certain 
classes of the Romans, and under its teachings and doctrines 
were nourished some of the purest and loftiest characters pro- 
duced by the pagan world. 

273. Epicurus and the Epicureans. — Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) 
taught, in opposition to the Stoics, that pleasure is the highest 
good. He recommended virtue, indeed, but only as a means 
for the attainment of pleasure; whereas the Stoics made virtue 
an end in itself. In other words, Epicurus said, " Be virtuous, 
because virtue will bring you the greatest amount of happiness"; 
Zeno said," Be virtuous, because you ought to be." 

Epicurus had many followers in Greece, and his doctrines 
were eagerly embraced by many among the Romans during the 
later corrupt period of the Empire. Many of these disciples 
carried the doctrines of their master to an excess that he himself 
would have been the first to condemn. Allowing full indulgence 
to every appetite, their whole philosophy was expressed in the 
proverb, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." 

274. The Neoplatonists. — Neoplatonism was a blending of 
Greek philosophy and Oriental religious feeling. Its representa- 
tives were at one and the same time Greek thinkers and Hebrew 
seers. The center of this last movement in Greek philosophical 
thought was Alexandria in Egypt, the meeting place, in the clos- 
ing centuries of the ancient world, of the East and the West. 

Philo the Jew (b. about 30 B.C.), who labored to harmonize 
Hebrew doctrines with the teachings of Plato, was the forerunner 
of the Neoplatonists. But the greatest of the school was Ploti- 
nus (a.d. 204-269), who spent the last years of his life at Rome, 
where he was a great favorite. 

While the Neoplatonists were laboring to restore, in modified 
form, the ancient Greek philosophy and worship, the teachers of 
Christianity were fast winning the world over to a new faith. The 
two systems came into deadly conflict. Christianity triumphed. 



MATHEMATICS 187 

With the triumph of the Christian Fathers the work of the Greek 
philosophers, as living personal teachers, was ended ; but their 
systems of thought will never cease to attract and influence the 
best minds of the race. 

275. Science among the Greeks. — The contributions of the 
Greek observers to the physical sciences have laid us under no 
small obligation to them. Some of those whom we have classed 
as philosophers were careful students of nature, and might be 
called scientists. Aristotle wrote some valuable works on anatomy 
and natural history. From his time onward the sciences were 
pursued with much zeal and success. Especially did the later 
Greeks do much good and lasting work in the mathematical sci- 
ences, basing their labors upon what had already been achieved 
by the Egyptians and the Chaldeans. 

276. Mathematics: Euclid and Archimedes. — Alexandria, in 
Egypt, became the seat of the most celebrated school of math- 
ematics of antiquity. Here, under Ptolemy Soter, nourished 
Euclid, the great geometer, whose work forms the basis of the 
science of geometry as taught in our schools to-day. Ptolemy 
himself was his pupil. The royal student, however, seems to have 
disliked the severe application required to master the problems 
of Euclid, and asked his teacher if there was not some easier way. 
Euclid replied, " There is no royal road to geometry." In the third 
century B.C., Syracuse, in Sicily, was the home of Archimedes, the 
greatest mathematician that the Grecian world produced. 

277. Astronomy and Geography. — Among ancient Greek as- 
tronomers and geographers the names of Aristarchus and Clau- 
dius Ptolemy are best known. Aristarchus of Samos, who lived 
in the third century B.C., held that the earth revolves about the 
sun as a fixed center, and rotates on its own axis. He was the 
Greek Copernicus. But his theory was rejected by his con- 
temporaries and successors. 

Claudius Ptolemy lived in Egypt about the middle of the 
second century after Christ. He compiled a vast work which 
preserved and transmitted to later times almost all the knowledge 
of the ancient world on astronomical and geographical subjects. 



l88 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE 

In this way it happened that the phrase " Ptolemaic System " 
became attached to various doctrines and views respecting the 
universe, though these probably were not originated by Ptolemy. 
The conception of the solar system set forth in his works con- 
tinued to be the received theory from his time until Copernicus, 
fourteen centuries later. 

Ptolemy combated the theory of Aristarchus in regard to the 
rotation and revolution of the earth ; yet he believed the earth 
to be a globe, and supported this view by exactly the same argu- 
ments that we to-day use to prove the doctrine. 

278. Medicine and Anatomy. — Hippocrates (b. about 460 B.C.) 
did so much to emancipate the art of healing from superstition 
and ignorance, and to make it a scientific study, that he is called 
the Father of Medicine. 

The advance of the science of anatomy among the ancient 
Greeks was hindered by their feelings respecting the body, which 
caused them to look with horror upon its deliberate mutilation. 
Surprising as the statement may appear, it is nevertheless true 
that Aristotle, " the greatest of all thinkers in antiquity, the son 
of a physician, especially educated in physical science, and well 
acquainted for the time with the dissection of animals, regarded 
the brain as a lump of cold substance, quite unfit to be the seat 
and organ of the sensus communis? This important office he 
ascribed rather to the heart. The brain he considered to be 
chiefly useful as the source of fluids for lubricating the eyes, etc." 9 

Selections from the Sources. — Plato, Republic, ii. 379 and 380, on 
God as the author of good; and Phcedo, on immortality. 

Secondary Works. — Grote (ten-volume ed.), vol. iv, pp. 65-94, Ionic 
philosophers and Pythagoras; vol. vii, pp. 32-172, the Sophists and 
Socrates. Mayor, J. B., Sketch of Ancient Philosophy. Turner, W., His- 
tory of Philosophy, chaps, i-xx. Davidson, T., The Education of the Greek 
People, chap, v; on the teaching of Socrates. Toy, C. H., Judais?n and 
Christianity. Forbes, J. T., Socrates. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The Sophists. 2. Plato's Republic. 
3. The Stoics. 

8 The thinking faculty, the mind. 

9 Ladd's Elements of Physiological Psychology (1887), p. 240. 



u 



CHAPTER XXIV 



SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS 




279. Education. — Education at Sparta, where it was chiefly 
gymnastic, as we have seen, was a state affair (sec. 140); but at 
Athens and throughout Greece generally, the youth were trained 
in private schools. These schools were of all grades, ranging 
from those kept by the most obscure teachers, who gathered their 
pupils in some re- 
cess of the street, to 
those established in 
the Athenian Acad- 
emy and Lyceum by 
such philosophers as 
Plato and Aristotle. 

It was only the 
boys who received 
education. These 
Grecian boys, Pro- 
fessor Mahaffy imagines, were " the most attractive the world 
has ever seen." At all events, we may believe that they were 
trained more carefully and delicately than the youth among any 
other people before or since the days of Hellenic culture. 

In the nursery the boy was taught the beautiful myths and 
stories of the national mythology and religion. 1 At about seven 

1 Infanticide was almost universally practiced throughout Greece. (At Thebes, 
however, the exposure of children was prohibited by severe laws.) Such philosophers 
as Plato and Aristotle saw nothing in the custom to condemn. The infant was 
abandoned in some desert place, or left in some frequented spot in the hope that it 
might be picked up and cared for. Greek literature, like that of every other people 
of antiquity, is filled with stories and dramas all turning upon points afforded by 
this common practice. The career of Sargon of Agade, of Cyrus the Great of 
Persia, of the Hebrew Moses, of CEdipus of Thebes, of Romulus and Remus of 
Roman legend, and a hundred others, are all prefaced by the same story of exposure 
and fortunate rescue. 



Fig. 71. —A Greek School 
(From a vase painting) 



190 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS 

he entered school, being led to and from the place of training by 
an old slave, who bore the name of " pedagogue," which in Greek 
means a guide or leader of boys, not a teacher. His studies 
were grammar, music, and gymnastics, the aim of the course being 
to secure a symmetrical development of mind and body alike. 

Grammar included reading, writing, and arithmetic ; music, 
which embraced a wide range of mental accomplishments, trained 
the boy to appreciate the masterpieces of the great poets, to con- 
tribute his part to the musical diversions of private entertain- 
ments, and to join in the sacred choruses and in the paean of 
the battlefield. The exercises of the palestrae and the gymnasia 
trained him for the Olympic contests, or for those sterner hand- 
to-hand battle struggles in which so much depended upon per- 
sonal strength and dexterity. 

Upon reaching maturity the youth was enrolled in the list of 
citizens. But his graduation from school was his "commence- 
ment " in a much more real sense than with the average modern 
graduate. Never was there a people besides the Greeks whose 
daily life was so emphatically a discipline in liberal culture. The 
schools of the philosophers, the debates of the popular assembly, 
the practice of the law courts, the masterpieces of a divine art, 
the religious possessions, the representations of an unrivaled 
stage, the Panhellenic games, — all these were splendid and effi- 
cient educational agencies, which produced and maintained a 
standard of average intelligence and culture among the citizens 
of the Greek cities that probably has -never been attained among 
any other people on the earth. Freeman, quoted approvingly by 
Mahaffy, says that " the average intelligence of the assembled 
Athenian citizens was higher than that of our [the English] 
House of Commons." 

280. Social Position of Woman. — Although there are in Greek 
literature some exquisitely beautiful portraitures of ideal woman- 
hood, still the general tone of the literature betrays a deep con- 
tempt for woman. Thucydides quotes with seeming approval the 
Greek proverb, " That woman is best who is least spoken of 
among men, whether for good or for evil." 



THEATRICAL ENTERTAINMENTS 191 

This unworthy conception of woman of course consigned her 
to a narrow and inferior place in the Greek home. Her position 
may be defined as being about halfway between Oriental seclu- 
sion and modern or Western freedom. Her main duties were to 
cook and spin, and to oversee the domestic slaves, of whom she 
herself was practically one. In the fashionable society of Ionian 
cities she was seldom allowed to appear in public, or to meet, 
even in her own house, the male friends of her husband. In 
Sparta, however, and in Dorian states generally, she was accorded 
unusual freedom, and was a really important factor in society. 

281. Theatrical Entertainments. — Among the ancient Greeks 
the theater was a state establishment, " a part of the constitution." 
This arose from the religious origin and character of the drama 
(sec. 256), all matters pertaining to the popular worship being 
the care and concern of the state. Theatrical performances, 
being religious acts, were presented only during religious festivals, 
— certain festivals observed in honor of Dionysus, — and were 
attended by all classes, rich and poor, men, women, and children. 
The women, however, were, it would seem, permitted to witness 
tragedies only ; the comic stage was too gross to allow of their 
presence. The spectators sat under the open sky; and the pieces 
followed one after the other in close succession from early morn- 
ing till nightfall. 

While the better class of actors were highly honored, ordinary 
players were held in very low esteem, in which matter the Greek 
stage presents a parallel to that of England in the sixteenth cen- 
tury. And as in the Elizabethan age the writers of plays were 
frequently also the performers, so in Greece, particularly during 
the early period of the drama, the author often became an actor, 
and assisted in the presentation of his own pieces. Still another 
parallel is found in the fact that the female parts in the Greek 
dramas, as in the early English theater, were taken by men. 

The tragic actor increased his height and size by wearing thick- 
soled buskins, an enormous mask, and padded garments. The 
actor in comedy wore thin-soled slippers, or socks. The sock 
being thus a characteristic part of the make-up of the ancient 



192 



SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS 



comic actor, and the buskin that of the tragic actor, these foot 
coverings have come to be used as the symbols respectively of 
comedy and tragedy, as in the familiar lines of Dryden : 

Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here, 
Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear. 

The theater exerted a great influence upon Greek life. It per- 
formed for ancient Greek society somewhat the same service as 
that rendered to modern society by the pulpit and the press. 
During the best days of Hellas the frequent rehearsal upon the 
stage of the chief incidents in the lives of the gods and heroes 
served to deepen and strengthen the religious faith of the people ; 

and later, when with 
the Macedonian the 
days of decline 
came, the stage was 
one of the chief 
agents in the dif- 
fusion of Greek 
literary culture over 
the world. 

282. Banquets 
and Symposia. — 




Fig. 72. — A Banquet Scene 



Banquets and drinking parties among the Greeks possessed some 
features which set them apart from similar entertainments among 
other people. 

The banquet proper was partaken, in later times, by the guests 
in a reclining position, upon couches or divans arranged about 
the table in the Oriental manner. After the usual courses a liba- 
tion was poured out and a hymn sung in honor of the gods, and 
then followed that characteristic part of the entertainment known 
as the " symposium." 

The symposium was " the intellectual side of the feast." It 
consisted of general conversation, riddles, and convivial songs 
rendered to the accompaniment of the lyre passed from hand 
to hand. Generally professional singers and musicians, dancing 



SLAVERY 



193 



girls, jugglers, and jesters were called in to contribute to the 
merrymaking. The symposium must at times, when the conver- 
sation was sustained by such persons as Socrates and Aristoph- 
anes, have been " a feast of reason and a flow of soul " indeed. 
Xenophon in his Banquet and Plato in his Symposium have each 
left us a striking report of such an entertainment. 

283. Slavery. — There is a dark side to Greek life. Hellenic 
art, culture, refinement, — " these good things were planted, like 
exquisite exotic flowers, upon the black, rank soil of slavery." 

Slaves were very numerous in Greece. No exact estimate can 
be made of their number, but it is believed that they greatly out- 
numbered the free population. Almost every freeman was a slave 
owner. It was accounted a real hardship to have to get along 
with less than half a dozen slaves. 

This large class of slaves was formed in various ways. In the 
prehistoric period the fortunes of war had brought the. entire 
population of whole provinces into a servile condition, as in cer- 
tain parts of the Peloponnesus. During later times, the ordinary 
captives of war still further argumented the ranks of these unfor- 
tunates. Their number was also largely added to by the slave 
traffic carried on with the barbarian peoples of Asia. Criminals 
and debtors, too, were often condemned to servitude ; while 
foundlings were usually brought up as slaves. 

The relation of master and slave was regarded by the Greek 
as a perfectly natural one. A free community, in his view, could 
not exist without slavery. It formed the natural basis of both 
the family and the state, the relation of master and slave being 
regarded as " strictly analogous to the relation of soul and 
body." Even Aristotle and other Greek philosophers approved 
the maxim that " slaves were simply domestic animals possessed 
of intelligence." 2 

2 This harsh, selfish doctrine, it should be noted, was somewhat modified and 
relaxed when the slave class, through the numerous captives of the unfortunate civil 
wars, came to be made up in considerable part of cultured Greeks, instead of being, 
as was the case in earlier times, composed almost exclusively of barbarians, or of 
inferior branches of the Hellenic race, between whom and their cultured masters 
there was the same difference in mental qualities as existed between the negro 



194 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS 

In general, Greek slaves were not treated harshly, judging 
their treatment by the standard of humanity that prevailed in 
antiquity. Some held places of honor in the family, and enjoyed 
the confidence and even the friendship of their master. Yet at 
Sparta, where slavery assumed the form of serfdom, the lot of 
the slave was peculiarly hard and unendurable. 

If ever slavery was justified by its fruits, it was in Greece. The 
brilliant civilization of the Greeks was its product, and could 
never have existed without it. Relieving the citizen of all drudg- 
ery, the system created a class characterized by elegant leisure, 
refinement, and culture. 

We find an almost exact historical parallel to all this in the 
feudal aristocracy of mediaeval Europe. Such a society has been 
well likened to a great pyramid whose top may be gilded with 
light while its base lies in dark shadows. The civilization of 
ancient Hellas was splendid and attractive, but it rested with a 
crushing weight upon all the lower orders of Greek society. 

Selections from the Sources. — Aristotle, Politics, viii ; on education. 
Xenophon, Symposium, i and iv. 

Secondary Works. — Blumner, H., The Home Life of the Ancient 
Greeks. Davidson, T., The Education of the Greek People and Ancient 
Educational Ideals. Mahaffy, J. P., Social Life in Greece, Old Greek 
Education, Greek Life and Thought (selected chapters), and Old Greek 
Life. Guhl, E., and Koner, W., Life of the Greeks and the Romans (first 
part). Gulick, C. B., The Life of the Ancient Greeks. 

Topics for Class Reports. — i. Home life of the Greeks. 2. Greek 
education. See Monroe's Source Book in the History of Education for the 
Greek and Roman Period. 3. Daily life in Athens. 4. Greek slavery. 
5. Marriage and funeral customs. 



slaves and their masters in our own country. The sentiment that a slave was an 
unfortunate person, rather than an inferior being, came to prevail, — a sentiment 
which aided powerfully in preparing the way for the Christian doctrine of the 
universal brotherhood of man. 



Division III — Rome 

CHAPTER XXV 
ITALY AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS 

284. Divisions of Italy. — The peninsula of Italy, like that of 
Greece, may be divided into three parts, — Northern, Central, 
and Southern Italy. The first comprises the great basin of the 
Po, lying between the Alps and the Apennines. In ancient times 
this part of Italy included three districts, — Liguria, Gallia Cisal- 
pina, which means " Gaul on this [the Italian] side of the Alps," 
and Venetia. 

The countries of Central Italy were Etruria, Latium, and Cam- 
pania, facing the Western or Tuscan Sea ■ Umbria and Picenum, 
looking out over the Eastern or Adriatic Sea; and Samnium 
and the country of the Sabines, occupying the rough mountain 
districts of the Apennines. 

Southern Italy comprised the ancient districts of Apulia, Lu- 
cania, Calabria, and Bruttium. Calabria formed the "heel," 1 
and Bruttium the " toe," of the bootlike peninsula. The coast 
region of Southern Italy, as we have already learned, was called 
Magna Grcecia, or "Great Greece," on account of the number 
and importance of the Greek cities that during the period of 
Hellenic supremacy were established on these shores. 

The large island of Sicily, lying just off the mainland on the 
south, may be regarded simply as a detached fragment of Italy, 
so intimately has its history been connected with that of the 
peninsula. 

285. Mountains, Rivers, and Harbors. — Italy, like the other 
two peninsulas of Southern Europe, Greece and Spain, has a high 

1 During the Middle Ages this name was transferred to the toe of the peninsula, 
and this forms the Calabria of to-day. 

!95 



196 ITALY AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS 

mountain barrier, the Alps, along its northern frontier. Corre- 
sponding to the Pindus range in Greece, the Apennines run as 
a great central ridge through the peninsula. Eastward of the 
ancient Latium they spread out into broad uplands, which in early 
times nourished a race of hardy mountaineers, who incessantly 
harried the territories of the more civilized lowlanders of Latium 
and Campania. Thus the physical conformation of this part of 
the peninsula shaped large sections of Roman history, just as 
in the case of Scotland the physical contrast between the north 
and the south was reflected for centuries in the antagonisms of 
highlanders and lowlanders. 

Italy has only one really great river, the Po, which drains the 
large northern plain, already mentioned, lying between the Alps 
and the Apennines. The streams running down the eastern slope 
of the Apennines are short and of little volume. Among them 
the Aufidus, the Metaurus, and the Rubicon are connected with 
great matters of history. 2 Among the rivers draining the western 
slopes of the Apennines, the one possessing the greatest historic 
interest is the Tiber, on the banks of which Rome arose. 

The finest Italian harbors, of which that of Naples is the most 
celebrated, are on the western coast. The eastern coast has few 
good havens. Italy thus faces the west. What makes it important 
for us to notice this circumstance is the fact that Greece faces 
the east (sec. 1 13, n. 2), and that thus these two peninsulas, as the 
historian Mommsen expresses it, turn their backs to each other. 
This brought it abotit that Rome and the cities of Greece had 
almost no dealings with one another for many centuries. 

286. Early Inhabitants of Italy. — There were in early times 
three chief races in Italy, — the Italians, the Etruscans, and the 
Greeks. The Italians, a branch of the Aryan family, embraced 
many tribes (Latins, Umbrians, Sabines, Samnites, etc.), that occu- 
pied nearly all Central, and a considerable part of Southern, Italy. 3 
Their life was for the most part that of shepherds and farmers. 

2 See sees. 342, 345, and 383. 

8 Notice carefully the large area covered by the Italian color on the accompany- 
ing map. The Italian race formed the best part of the material out of which the 
real Roman nation was formed. 




ANCIENT ITALY 
before the Rise of Rome 



Scale of Miles 
Greeks | | Gauls [^ | Venetians I 1 

Italians □ LiguriansQ Phoenicians I I 



Etruscans □ 

The M. -N. Works 



THE LATINS 



197 



The Etruscans, a wealthy, cultured, and seafaring people of 
uncertain race and origin, dwelt in Etruria, now called Tuscany 
after them. 4 Before the rise of the Roman people they were the 
leading race in the peninsula. Certain elements in their culture 
lead us to believe that they had learned much from the cities of 
Magna Graecia. The Etruscans in their turn became the teachers 
of the early Romans and im- 
parted to them at least some 
minor elements of civilization, 
including hints in the art of 
building and various religious 
ideas and rites. 

With the Greek cities in 
Southern Italy and in Sicily we 
have already formed an ac- 
quaintance. Through the 
medium of these cultured com- 
munities the Romans were 
taught the use of letters and 
given valuable suggestions in 
matters of law and constitu- 
tional government. 

Some five hundred years B.C., FlG " 73- -An ^scan Chariot* 
the Gauls, a Celtic race, came 

over the Alps, and settling in Northern Italy, became formidable 
enemies of the infant republic of Rome. 

287. The Latins. — Most important of all the Italian peoples 
were the Latins, who dwelt in Latium, between the Tiber and 
the Liris. These people, like all the Italians, were near kindred 
of the Greeks, and brought with them into Italy those customs, 
manners, beliefs, and institutions which seem to have been the 
early common possession of the various Aryan-speaking peoples. 

4 In early times they had settlements in Northern Italy and in Campania. 

5 This interesting memorial of Etruscan art has recently been acquired by the 
Metropolitan Museum of New York at a cost of $48,000. It was found in an ancient 
Etruscan cemetery (1901). Almost every part of the chariot, including the wheels, 
was sheathed in figured bronze. The relic probably dates from the seventh century B.C. 







19$ 



ITALY AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS 



According to tradition there were in all Latium in prehistoric 
times thirty towns or petty city-states. These had formed an 

alliance among themselves known 
as the Latin League. At the 
dawn of history the leadership in 
this confederacy was held by 
Rome, which was situated on a 
cluster of low hills on the left 
bank of the Tiber, about fifteen 
miles from the sea. This little 
fortress town was intended doubt- 
less as an outpost to protect the 
northern frontier of Latium against 
the Etruscans, the most powerful 
and aggressive neighbors of the 
Latin people. 

Concerning the government 
and the religious and social ar- 
rangements of the Roman com- 
munity, and concerning the fortunes of the city of Rome under 
its early kings, we shall give a brief account in the next chapter. 




Fig. 74. — An Ancient Roman 
Coin bearing the Prow of 
a Ship 

From the use of this symbol on the 
city's money we may assume that 
commerce held an important place 
in the life of early Rome 



Selections from the Sources. — Cicero, On the Commonwealth, ii. 3-6. 
For additional selections for this and following chapters on the Republic and 
the early Empire, see Munro's A Source Booh of Roman History. The teacher 
will find this admirable collection of extracts from the sources an invaluable 
aid in imparting a sense of life and reality to the story of ancient Rome. 

Secondary Works. — Mommsen, vol. i, chaps, i and ii. Freeman, E. A., 
The Historical Geography of Europe, vol. i (text), pp. 7-9 and 43-49. 
Tozer, H. F., Classical Geography, chaps, ix and x. How, W. W., and 
Leigh, H. D., History of Rome, chaps, i and ii. Shuckburgh, E. S., 
History of Rome, chaps, ii and iii. Allcroft, A. H., and Masom, W. F., 
Tutorial History of Rome, pp. 1-18. Dennis, G., The Cities and Ceme- 
teries of Etruria, vol. i, Introduction. The author probably exaggerates 
the debt which the early civilization of Rome owed to the preceding 
culture of Etruria. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Geographical condition's tending to make 
the history of Italy different from that of Greece. 2. Etruscan civilization. 
3. The debt of Rome to Etruria. 4. Relation to Rome of the Greek 
colonies in Italy. 




\i__ t v .. _ . : ;; 

Fig. 75. — The Bronze Wolf of the Capitol 



CHAPTER XXVI 
ROME AS A KINGDOM 

I. Society and Government 



i 



288. The Roman Family ; the Worship of Ancestors. — At the 

bottom of Roman society was the family. This was a very differ- 
ent group from that which among us bears the same name. The 
typical Roman family consisted of the father {paterfamilias) and 
mother, the sons together with their wives and sons, and the 
unmarried daughters. When a daughter married she became a 
member of the family to which her husband belonged. 

The most important feature or element of this family group 
was the authority of the father. His power over each and all of 
its members was legally absolute. He could sell his wife or his 
son just as he could sell one of his slaves. He was the sole judge 
of the members of the family, and could put to death without 
appeal even a son grown to man's estate. 

The father was the high priest of the family, for the family had 
a common worship. This was the cult of its dead ancestors (the 
Lares and Penates). The spirits of these were believed to linger 
near the old hearth. If provided with frequent offerings of meat 
and drink, they would, it was thought, watch over the living 

199 



200 ROME AS A KINGDOM 

members of the family and aid and prosper them in their daily 
work and in all their undertakings. If they were neglected, how- 
ever, these spirits became restless and suffered pain, and in their 
anger would bring trouble in some form upon their undutiful 
kinsmen. 

•It would be difficult to overestimate the influence of the family 
upon the history and destiny of Rome. It was the cradle of at 
least some of those splendid virtues of the early Romans that 
contributed so much to the strength and greatness of Rome, and 
that helped to give her the dominion of the world. It was in the 
atmosphere of the family that were nourished in the Roman youth 
the virtues of obedience and of deference to authority. When the 
youth became a citizen, obedience to magistrates and respect for 
law were with him an instinct and indeed almost a religion. And, 
on the other hand, the exercise of the parental authority in the 
family taught the Roman how to command as well as how to obey, 
— how to exercise authority with wisdom, moderation, and justice. 

289. Dependents of the Family ; Clients and Slaves. — Besides 
those members constituting the family proper there were attached 
to it usually a number of dependents. These were the clients and 
slaves. The client was a person standing to the head of the 
family, who was called his patron, in a relation which, in some 
respects, was like that of the mediaeval serf to his lord. The 
class of clients was probably made up of homeless refugees or 
strangers from other cities, or of freed slaves dwelling in their 
former master's house. They were free to engage in business at 
Rome and to accumulate property, though whatever they gathered 
was legally the property of the patron. 

The slaves constituted merely a part of the family property. 
There were only a few slaves in the early Roman family, and 
these were held for service chiefly within the home and not in the 
fields. It was not until later times, when luxury crept into Rome, 
that the number of domestic slaves became excessively great. 

290. The Clan, the Curia, the Tribe, and the City. — Above the 
family stood the clan, or gens. This was probably in the earliest 
times simply the expanded family, the members of which had 



THE KING AND THE SENATE 201 

outgrown the remembrance of their exact relationship. Yet they 
all believed themselves to have had a common ancestor and 
called themselves by his name, as, for instance, in the case of the 
Fabii, the Claudii, the Julii, and so on. The gens, like the family, 
had a common altar. 

The next largest group or division of the community was the 
curia, which has been compared to the ward of the modern city. 
This was the most important political division of the people, as 
the family was the most important social group. It was so for the 
reason that levies for the army were made by curiae, and that 
the voting in the primitive assembly of the people, as we shall 
explain presently, was done by these same bodies. There were 
thirty curiae in primitive Rome. 

Above the curiae was the tribe, the largest subdivision of the 
community. In early Rome there were three tribes, each com- 
prising ten curiae. 

These several groups made up the community of early Rome. 
This city, like the cities of ancient Greece (sec. 122), was a city- 
state, — that is, an independent sovereign body like a modern 
nation. As such it possessed a constitution and government, 
concerning which we will next give a short account. 

291. The King and the Senate. — At the head of the early 
Roman state stood a king, the father of his people, holding essen- 
tially the same relation to them that the father of a family held 
to his household. He was at once ruler of the nation, commander 
of the army, and judge and high priest of his people. In theory 
his power was absolute. He was preceded by servants called 
lictors, each bearing a bundle of rods (the fasces) with an ax 
bound therein, the symbol of his power to punish by flogging and 
by putting to death. 

Next to the king stood the Senate, a body composed of the 
"fathers," or heads of the ancient clans of the community. This 
was the king's advisory council. 

292. The Popular Assembly. — The popular assembly (comitia 
curiata) comprised all the freemen of Rome. This was not prop- 
erly a legislative body, but an assembly called together to hear 



202 ROME AS A KINGDOM 

announcements as to festivals, to ratify the nomination of a new 
king, to witness wills, and to authorize certain public acts. 

The manner of taking a vote in this assembly should be noted, 
for the usage here was followed in all the later popular assemblies 
of the republican period. The voting was not by individuals but 
by curia; ; that is, each curia had one vote, and the measure before 
the body was carried or lost according as a majority of the curiae 
voted for or against it. 

It should be further noted that this assembly was not a repre- 
sentative body, like a modern legislature, but a primary assembly, 
that is, a meeting like a New England town meeting. All of the 
later assemblies at Rome were like this primitive assembly. The 
Romans never learned, or at least never employed, the principle 
of representation, without which device government by the people 
in the great states of the present day would be impossible. How 
important the bearing of this was upon the political fortunes of 
Rome we shall learn later. 

293. The Patricians and the Rights of the Roman Citizen. — The 
heads of the ancient gentes at Rome, who constituted the Senate, 
were called patres, or " fathers," whence it probably came that all 
the members of these groups were called patricians. These patri- 
cians formed the hereditary nobility of the earlier Roman state. 
They alone possessed the full rights and privileges of citizenship. 

And here we must acquaint ourselves with what the rights and 
privileges of Roman citizenship included. The rights of the Ro- 
man citizen were divided, first, into private rights and public rights. 

The chief private rights were two, namely, the right of trade 
(jus commercii) and the right of marriage (jus connubii). The 
right of trade or commerce was the right to acquire, to hold, and 
to bequeath property (both personal and landed) according to 
the forms of the Roman law. This in the ancient city was an 
important right and privilege. 1 The right of marriage was the 
" right of contracting a full and religious marriage." Such a mar- 
riage could take place in early Rome only between patricians. 

1 In some modern states aliens are not allowed to acquire landed property ; in 
Roman terms there is withheld from them a part of the jus commercii. 



THE PLEBEIANS 203 

The three chief public rights of the Roman citizen were the 
right of voting in the public assemblies, the right to hold office, 
and the right of appeal from the decision of a magistrate to the 
people. 

Now in primitive Rome the patricians alone possessed all these 
rights of citizenship. Some of the private rights they shared with 
an inferior class in the state, as will appear in the following para- 
graph, but the political rights they jealously guarded as the sacred 
patrimony of their own order. 

294. The Plebeians. — When Rome first appears in history, we 
notice a large class in the community, known as, plebeians (from 
plebs, the multitude), who enjoy only a part of the rights of citi- 
zenship as given in the preceding section. The greater number 
of the plebeians were petty landowners, holding and tilling with 
their own hands farms of a few acres in extent in the near 
neighborhood of Rome. They possessed at least one of the most 
important rights of Roman citizenship, namely, the private right 
of engaging in trade. But from most of the other rights and 
privileges of the full citizen they were wholly shut out. A large 
part of the early history of Rome is made up of the struggles of 
these plebeians to better their economic condition and to secure 
for themselves social and political equality with the patricians. 

II. Religion 

295. The Chief Roman Deities. — The basis of the Roman 
religious system was the same as that of the Greek. At the head 
of the pantheon stood Jupiter, identical in all essential attributes 
with the Hellenic Zeus. He was the special protector of the 
Roman people. To him, together with Juno and Minerva, was 
consecrated a magnificent temple upon the summit of the Capi- 
toline hill, overlooking the city. 

Mars, the god of war, was the favorite deity and the fabled 
father of the Roman race, who were fond of calling themselves 
the " children of Mars." They proved themselves worthy offspring 
of the war-god. Martial games and festivals were celebrated in his 



204 



ROME AS A KINGDOM 



honor during the first month of the Roman year, which bore, and 
still bears, in his honor, the name of March. 

Janus was a double-faced deity to whom the month of January was 
sacred, as were also all gates and doors. The gates of his temple 
were always kept open in time of war and shut in time of peace. 

The fire upon the household hearth was regarded as the symbol 
of the goddess Vesta. Her worship was a favorite one with the 
Romans. The nation, too, as a single great family, had a common 

national hearth in the temple of 
Vesta, where the sacred fires were 
kept burning from generation to 
generation by six virgins, daughters 
of the Roman state. 

296. Oracles and Divination. — 
There were no true oracles at 
Rome. The Romans, therefore, 
often had recourse to those among 
the Greeks. Particularly in great 
emergencies did they seek advice 
from the celebrated oracle of 
Apollo at Delphi. From Etruria 
was introduced the art of the 
haruspices, or soothsayers, which consisted in discovering the will 
of the gods by the appearance of the entrails of victims slain for 
the sacrifice. 

297. The Sacred Colleges. — The four chief sacred colleges or 
societies were the Keepers of the Sibylline Books, the College of 
Augurs, the College of Pontiffs, and the College of the Heralds. 

The Sibylline Books were volumes written in Greek, the origin 
of which was lost in fable. They were kept in a stone chest in a 
vault beneath the Capitoline temple, and special custodians were 
appointed to take charge of them and interpret them. The books 
were consulted only in times of extreme danger (sec. 335). 

The duty of the members of the College of Augurs was to inter- 
pret the omens, or auspices, — which were casual sights or ap- 
pearances, particularly the flight of birds, — by which means it 




Fig. 76. — Head of Janus 
(From a Roman coin) 






SACRED GAMES AND FESTIVALS 205 

was believed that Jupiter made known his will. Great skill was 
required in the " taking of the auspices," as it was called. No 
business of importance, public or private, was entered upon with- 
out the auspices being first consulted to ascertain whether they 
were favorable. The public assembly, for illustration, must not 
convene, to elect officers or to enact laws, unless the auspices had 
been taken and found propitious. 

The College of Pontiffs was so called probably because one of 
the duties of its members was to keep in repair a certain bridge 
(pons) over the Tiber. To the pontiffs belonged the superin- 
tendence of all religious matters. The head of the college was 
called Pontifex Maximus, or " Chief Bridge Builder," which title 
was assumed by the Roman emperors, and after them by the 
Christian bishops of Rome, and thus has come down to our 
times. 

The College of Heralds had the care of all public matters 
pertaining to foreign nations. Thus, if the Roman people had 
suffered any wrong from another state, and war was determined 
upon, then it was the duty of a herald to proceed to the frontier 
of the enemy's country and hurl over the boundary a spear dipped 
in blood. This was a declaration of war. 

298. Sacred Games and Festivals. — The Romans had many 
religious games and festivals. Prominent among these were the 
so-called Circensian Games, or Games of the Circus, which were 
very similar to the sacred games of the Greeks. They consisted, 
in the main, of chariot racing, wrestling, foot racing, and various 
other athletic contests. These festivals, as in the case of those of 
the Greeks, had their origin in the belief that the gods delighted 
in the exhibition of feats of skill, strength, or endurance ; that 
their anger might be appeased by such spectacles ; or that they 
might be persuaded by the promise of games to lend aid to mortals 
in great emergencies. 2 

2 The games were an entertainment offered to the guests [the gods, who were 
"the guests of honor"], which were as certainly believed to be gratifying to their 
sight as a review of troops or a deer hunt to a modern European sovereign. — 
Wheeler, Dionysos and Immortality, p. 11. 



206 ROME AS A KINGDOM 

The Saturnalia were a festival held in honor of Saturn, the god 
of sowing. It was an occasion on which all classes, including the 
slaves, who were allowed their freedom during the celebration, 
gave themselves up to riotous amusements ; hence the significance 
we attach to the word saturnalian. The well-known Roman car- 
nival of to-day is a survival of the ancient Saturnalia. 

III. Rome under the Kings (753 ?-5oo. b.c.) 

299. The Legendary Kings. — The early government of Rome 
was a monarchy. The regal period, according to tradition, em- 
braced nearly two and a half centuries (from 753 to 509 B.C.). 
To span this period the legends of the Romans tell of the reigns 
of seven kings, — Romulus, the founder of Rome ; Numa, the 
lawgiver ; Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Martius, both conquerors ; 
Tarquinius Priscus, the great builder ; Servius Tullius, the reor- 
ganizer of the government and second founder of the state ; and 
Tarquinius Superbus, the haughty tyrant whose oppressions led to 
the abolition by the people of the office of king. 

The traditions of the doings of these monarchs and of what 
happened to them blend hopelessly fact and fable. We cannot 
be quite sure even as to their names. Respecting Roman affairs, 
however, under the last three rulers (the Tarquins), who were of 
Etruscan origin, some important things are related, the substantial 
truth of which we may rely upon with a fair degree of certainty ; 
and these matters we shall notice in the following sections. 

300. Growth of Rome under the Tarquins. — The Tarquins ex- 
tended their authority over the whole of Latium. The position 
of supremacy thus given Rome was attended by the rapid growth 
of the city in population and importance. The original walls soon 
became too strait for the increasing multitudes ; new ramparts 
were built, — tradition says under the direction of the king Servius 
Tullius, — which, with a great circuit of seven miles, swept around 
the entire cluster of seven hills on the south bank of the Tiber, 
whence the name that Rome acquired of " the City of the Seven 
Hills." 



ROME UNDER THE TARQUINS 



207 



A large tract of marshy ground between the Palatine and Capi- 
toline hills was drained by means of the Cloaca Maxima, an 
arched canal, which was so admirably constructed that it has been 
preserved to the present day. It still discharges its waters through 
a great arch into the Tiber. The land thus reclaimed became 
the Forum, the public market place of the early city. At one 
end of this public square, as we should call it, was the Comitium, 
an inclosure where assemblies for voting purposes were held. 




Fig. 77. — View of the Capitoline, with the Cloaca Maxima 
(A reconstruction) 

Standing on the dividing line between the Comitium and the 
Forum proper was the speakers' stand, later named the Rostra? 
This assembling place in later times was enlarged and decorated 
with various monuments and surrounded with splendid buildings 
and porticoes. Here more was said, resolved upon, and done than 
upon any other spot in the ancient world. 

301. The Reforms of Servius Tullius: the Five Classes and the 
Four New Tribes It was the second king of the Etruscan house, 



3 So called because decorated with the beaks {rostra) of war galleys taken from 
enemies (sec. 319). 



208 ROME AS A KINGDOM 

Servius Tullius by name, to whom tradition attributes a most 
important change in the constitution of the Roman state. 4 He 
did here at Rome just what Solon at about this time did at Athens. 
He made property and residence, instead of birth or membership 
in the patrician clans (sec. 293), the basis of the duties and 
consequently of the privileges of citizenship. 

Up to this time service in the army had been the duty and the 
privilege of the patricians. But the growing state had come to 
need a larger military force than the patrician order alone could 
maintain. Servius Tullius increased the army by requiring all land- 
owners, whether patricians or plebeians, between seventeen and 
sixty years of age, to assume a place in the ranks. The whole 
body of persons thus made liable to military service was divided 
into five classes according to the amount of land each possessed. 
The largest landowners were enrolled in the first three classes, and 
were required to provide themselves with complete armor ; the 
smaller proprietors, who made up the remaining two classes, were 
called upon to furnish themselves with only a light equipment. 

At the same time in place of the three old patrician tribes there 
were now created four new ones, each made up of the landowners 
residing in a given district. Though these new divisions of the 
population were called tribes, still they were very different in char- 
acter from the earlier divisions bearing this name. Membership 
in one of the old tribes was determined by birth or relationship, 
while membership in one of the new tribes was determined by 
place of residence. 5 

302. The Army and the Comitia Centuriata. — The unit of the 
military organization was the century, probably containing at this 
time, as the name (centurid) indicates, one hundred men. Forty-two 
centuries were united to form the legion, which thus at this period 
probably numbered forty-two hundred men, its normal strength. 

4 The reform itself is an historical fact, but it is possible that it was not effected 
by the efforts of any particular king. It may have been the result of a long period 
of slow constitutional development. 

5 Thus these new tribes were like our wards or townships. As new territory was 
acquired by the Romans through conquest, new tribes were created, until there were 
finally thirty-five, which number was never exceeded. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE SERVIAN REFORMS 209 

The assembling place of the military classes was a large plain 
just outside the city walls, called the Campics Martins, or " Field 
of Mars." The meeting was called the comitia centtiriata, or the 
"assembly of hundreds." This body, which of course was made 
up both of patricians and plebeians as active members, came in 
the course of time to absorb most of the powers of the earlier 
assembly {comitia curiata). 

303. Importance of the Servian Reforms. — The reforms of 
Servius Tullius were an important step towards the establishment 
of social and political equality between the two great orders of the 
state, — the patricians and the plebeians. The new constitution, 
indeed, as Mommsen says, assigned to the plebeians duties only, 
and not rights ; but being called upon to discharge the most im- 
portant duties of citizens, it was not long before they demanded 
all the rights of citizens ; and as the bearers of arms they were 
able to enforce their demands. 

304. The Expulsion of the Kings. — The legends, as already 
noted, make Tarquinius Superbus the last king of Rome. He is 
represented as a monstrous tyrant, whose arbitrary acts caused 
both patricians and plebeians to unite and drive him and all his 
house into exile. This event, according to the Roman annalists, 
occurred in the year 509 B.C., only one year later than the ex- 
pulsion of the tyrants from Athens (sec. 165). 

Selections from the Sources. — ■ Plutarch, Life of Romulus and Life 
of Numa. In the case of these particular lives the student will of course 
bear in mind that he is reading Roman folklore; but it is worth while 
for the student of Roman history to know what the Romans of later times 
themselves believed respecting their early kings. Livy, i and ii; a choice 
may be made among the early legends. 

Secondary Works. — Mommsen, vol. i, bk. i, chaps, v-vii and xii, 
Coulanges, Fustel de, The Ancient City, bk. ii, chap, i, " Religion was 
the Constituent Principle of the Ancient Family " ; and chap, x, " The Gens 
at Rome and in Greece." Pelham, H. F., Outlines of Roman History, 
bk. i, chaps, ii and iii. Ihne, W., Early Rome. Fowler, W. W., The City- 
State of the Greeks and Romans, chaps, ii and iii. Morey, W. C, Outlines 
of Roman Law, chap, i, " The Organization of Early Roman Society." 
Abbott, F. F., Roman Political Institutions, chaps, i and ii. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The Roman family. 2. The worship of 
Vesta. 3. The Sibylline Books. 



J 



CHAPTER XXVII 



THE EARLY REPUBLIC; PLEBEIANS BECOME CITIZENS WITH 
FULL RIGHTS 

(5 9-367 B.C.) 

305. Republican Magistrates: the Consuls and the Dictator. — 

With the monarchy overthrown the people set to work to reor- 
ganize the government. In place of the king there were elected 
(509 B.C.) two patrician magistrates, called at first prcetors, or 
"leaders," but later, consuls, or " colleagues." These magistrates 
were chosen for one year, and were invested at first with all the 
powers, save some priestly functions, that had been exercised by 
the king. In public each consul was attended, as the king had 
been, by twelve lictors, bearing the "dread fasces" (sec. 291). 

Each consul had the power of obstructing the acts or vetoing 
the commands of the other. This division of authority weakened 
the executive, so that in times of great public danger it was neces- 
sary to supersede the consuls by the appointment of a special 
officer bearing the title of dictator, whose term of office was 
limited to six months, but whose power during this time was as 
unlimited as that of the king had been. The dictator always 
named as his lieutenant and representative a magistrate known 
as " master of the horse " (inagister equitum). 

A consul could not be impeached, or reached by any legal 
process, while in office ; but after the expiration of his term he 
could be prosecuted for any misconduct while holding his magis- 
tracy. This rule was applied to all the other magistrates of the 
Republic. 

306. First Secession of the Plebeians (494 b.c). — Taking advan- 
tage of the disorders which followed the expulsion of the Tarquins, 
the Latin towns rose in revolt, with the result that almost all the 
conquests that had been made under the kings were lost. Troubles 
without brought troubles within. The poor plebeians during this 



THE COVENANT AND THE TRIBUNES 



21 I 



period of disorder fell in debt to the wealthy class, and payment 
was exacted with heartless severity. A debtor became the abso- 
lute property of his creditor, who might sell him as a slave to pay 
the debt, and in some cases 
even put him to death. 

The situation was intoler- 
able. The plebeians re- 
solved to secede from 
Rome and build a new city 
for themselves on a neigh- 
boring eminence, known 
afterwards as the Sacred 
Mount. Having on one 
occasion been called to 
arms to repel an invasion, 
they refused to march out 
against the enemy, but in- 
stead marched away in a 
body from Rome to the 
spot selected beforehand, 
and began to make prepa- 
rations for erecting new 
homes (494 B.C.). 

307. The Covenant and 
the Tribunes. — The patri- 
cians well knew that such a 
division would prove ruin- 
ous to the state, and that 
the plebeians must be per- 
suaded to give up their 

enterprise and come back to Rome. A commission was sent to 
treat with the insurgents. The plebeians were at first obdurate, 
but at last were persuaded to yield to the entreaties of the em- 
bassy to return, being won to this mind, so it is said, by one of 
the wise senators, who made use of the well-known fable of the 
body and the members. 




Fig. 78. — Lictors with Fasces 

The symbolic fasces borne by these officers were 
probably of Etruscan origin. The Tarquins 
are said to have brought them to Rome along 
with other insignia of the kingly office 



212 THE EARLY REPUBLIC 

The following covenant was entered into and bound by the 
most solemn oaths : The debts of the poor plebeians were to be 
canceled and debtors held in slavery set free ; and there were to 
be chosen two plebeian magistrates (the number was soon increased 
to ten), called tribunes, whose duty it should be to watch over 
and protect the plebeians. 

That the tribunes might be the protectors of the plebeians in 
something more than name, they were invested with an extraor- 
dinary power known as the jus aiixilii, " the right of aid"; that 
is, they were given the right, should any patrician magistrate 
attempt to deal wrongfully with a plebeian, to annul his act or 
stop his proceeding. 

The persons of the tribunes were made sacrosanct, that is, 
inviolable, like the persons of heralds. Any one interrupting a 
tribune in the discharge of his duties or doing him any violence 
was declared an outlaw whom any one might kill. That the 
tribunes might be always easily found, they were not allowed to 
go more than one mile beyond the city walls. Their houses were 
to be open night and day, that any plebeian unjustly dealt with 
might flee thither for protection and refuge. 

The tribunes were attended and aided by officers called cediles, 
who were elected from the plebeian order, and, like the tribunes, 
invested with a sacrosanct character. Among their duties was the 
care of the streets and markets and of the public archives. 

We cannot overestimate the importance of this establishment 
of the plebeian tribunate. Under the protection and leadership 
of the tribunes, who were themselves protected by oaths of in- 
violable sanctity, the plebeians carried on a struggle for a share 
in the offices and dignities of the state which never ceased until 
the Roman government, as yet only republican in name, became 
in fact a real democracy, in which patrician and plebeian shared 
equally in all emoluments and privileges. 

308. Border Wars and Border Tales ; Cincinnatus. — The chief 
enemies of early Rome and her Latin allies were the Volscians, 
the ^Equians, the Sabines, and the Etruscans. For more than a 
hundred years after the founding of the Republic, Rome, either 



BORDER WARS AND BORDER TALES 



213 



alone or in connection with her confederates, was almost con- 
stantly fighting one or another or all of these peoples. But these 
operations cannot be regarded as real wars. They were, on both 
sides, for the most part mere plundering forays or cattle-raiding 
expeditions into the enemy's territories. We shall probably not 
get a wrong idea of their real character if we liken them to the 
early so-called border wars between England and Scotland. Like 




The Roman Domain and the Latin Confederacy in the 
Time of the Early Republic, about 450 b.c. 

the Scottish wars, they were embellished by the Roman story-tellers 
with the most picturesque tales. One of the best known of these 
is that of Cincinnatus. 

According to the tradition, while one of the consuls was away 
fighting the Sabines, the ./Equians defeated the forces of the other 
and shut them up in a narrow valley whence escape seemed 
impossible. There was great terror in Rome when news of the 
situation of the army was brought to the city. The Senate im- 
mediately appointed Cincinnatus, a grand old patrician, dictator. 



214 THE EARLY REPUBLIC- 

The commissioners who carried to him the message from the 
Senate found him upon his little farm across the Tiber, at work 
plowing. Cincinnatus at once accepted the office, gathered the 
Roman army, surrounded and captured the enemy, and sent them 
all beneath the yoke. 1 He then led his army back to Rome in 
triumph, laid down his office, having held it only sixteen days, 
and sought again the retirement of his farm. 

309. The Decemvirs and the Twelve Tables of Laws (451- 
450 B.C.). — Written laws are always a great safeguard against 
oppression. Until what shall constitute a crime and what shall be 
its penalty are clearly written down and well known and under- 
stood by all, judges may render unfair decisions or inflict unjust 
punishment, and yet run little risk of being called to an account ; 
for no one but themselves knows what either the law or the penalty 
really is. Hence in all struggles of the people against the tyranny 
of a ruling class, the demand for written law is one of the first 
measures taken by them for the protection of their persons and 
property. Thus the commons of Athens, early in their struggle 
with the nobles, demanded and obtained a code of written laws 
(sec. 162). The same thing now took place at Rome. The 
plebeians demanded that the laws be written down and published. 
The patricians offered a stubborn resistance to their wishes, but 
finally were forced to yield to the popular clamor. 

A commission, so tradition says, was sent to the Greek cities 
of Southern Italy and to Athens to study their laws and customs. 
Upon the return of this embassy, a commission of ten magis- 
trates, known as decemvirs, was appointed to frame a code of laws 
(45 1 b.c). These officers, while engaged in this work, were also to 
administer the entire government, and so were invested with the 
supreme power of the state. The patricians gave up their consuls, 
and the plebeians their tribunes. At the end of the first year the 
task of the board was far from being finished, so a new decem- 
virate was elected to complete the work. The code was soon 

1 This was formed of two spears thrust firmly into the ground and crossed a few 
feet from the earth by a third spear. Prisoners of war were forced to pass beneath 
this yoke as a symbol of submission. 



OVERTHROW OF THE DECEMVIRS 21 5 

finished, and the laws were written on twelve tablets of bronze, 
which were fastened to the Rostra, or orator's platform in the 
Forum, where they might be seen and read by all. 

Only a few fragments of these celebrated laws have been pre- 
served, but the substance of a considerable part of the code is 
known to us through the allusions to it in the works of later 
writers and jurists. The provisions regarding the treatment of 
debtors are noteworthy. The law provided that, after the lapse of 
a certain number of days of grace, the creditor of a delinquent 
debtor might either put him in the stocks or in chains, sell him 
to any stranger resident beyond the Tiber, or put him to death. 
In case of there being several creditors the law provided as fol- 
lows : "After the third market day his [the debtor's] body may 
be divided." We are informed by later Roman writers that this 
savage provision of the law was, as a matter of fact, never carried 
into effect. 

Touching the power of the father over his sons the law pro- 
vided that " during their whole life he shall have the right to 
imprison, scourge, keep to rustic labor in chains, to sell, or to 
slay, even though they may be in the enjoyment of high state 
offices." 

These " Laws of the Twelve Tables " were to Roman jurispru- 
dence what the good laws of Solon were to the Athenian consti- 
tution. They formed the basis of all new legislation for many 
centuries, and constituted a part of the education of the Roman 
youth, — every schoolboy being required to learn them by heart. 

310. Misrule and Overthrow of the Decemvirs ; Second Seces- 
sion of the Plebeians (450 B.C.). — The first decemvirs used the 
great power lodged in their hands with justice and prudence ; but 
the second board, under the leadership of a certain Appius Clau- 
dius, instituted a most infamous and tyrannical rule. The result 
was a second secession of the plebeians to the Sacred Hill. This 
procedure, which once before had proved so effectual in securing 
justice to the oppressed, had a similar issue now. The situation 
was so critical that the decemvirs were forced to resign. The 
consulate and the tribunate were restored. 



2l6 THE EARLY REPUBLIC 

311. The Valerio-Horatian Laws; "the Roman Magna Carta" 

(449 B.C.). — The consuls chosen were Lucius Valerius and Mar- 
cus Horatius, who secured the passage of certain laws, known as 
the Valerio-Horatian Laws, which were of such constitutional 
importance that they have been called " the Magna Carta of 
Rome." Among the important provisions of the laws was the 
following : That the resolutions {plebiscite?) passed by the plebeian 
assembly of tribes 2 should in the future have the force of laws and 
should bind the whole people the same as the resolutions of the 
comitia centuriata. Hitherto these resolutions had possessed no 
force save as expressions of opinion, like the resolutions of a 
mass meeting among ourselves. 

312. Marriages between Patricians and Plebeians made Legal 
(445 B.C.). — Up to this time the plebeians had not been allowed 
to contract legal marriages with the patricians. But only three 
or four years after the passing of the Valerio-Horatian Laws, the 
tribune Gaius Canuleius carried a resolution known as the Canu- 
leian Law, whereby marriages between the plebeians and the 
patricians were legalized. This law established social equality 
between the two orders. 

313. Military Tribunes with Consular Power (444 B.C.). — 
This same tribune also brought forward another proposal, which 
provided that plebeians might be chosen as consuls. This sug- 
gestion led to a violent contention between the two orders. The 
issue of the matter was a compromise. It was agreed that, in 
place of the two patrician consuls, the people might elect from 
either order magistrates that should be known as " military 
tribunes with consular powers." These officers, whose number 
varied, differed from consuls more in name than in functions or 
in authority. In fact, the plebeians had gained the consular office 
but not the consular name. 

The patricians were especially unwilling that any plebeian 
should bear the title of consul, for the reason that an ex-consul 
enjoyed certain dignities and honors, such as the right to wear 
a particular kind of dress and to set up in his house images of 

2 The concilium tributum plebis. The origin of this assembly is obscure. 



THE CENSORS 



217 



his ancestors. These honorary distinctions the higher order 
wished to retain exclusively for themselves. 

314. The Censors (443 B.C.). — No sooner had the plebeians 
secured the right of admission to the military tribunate with con- 
sular powers, than the patricians began scheming to rob them of 
the fruit of their victory. They effected this by taking from the 
consulate some of its most distinctive duties and powers, and 
conferring them upon two new patrician officers called censors. 

The functions of these magistrates were many and important. 
They could, for immorality or any improper conduct, degrade a 
knight from his rank, expel a member from the Senate, or deprive 
any citizen of his vote by striking his name from the roll of the 
tribes. It was their duty to rebuke ostentation and extravagance 
in living, and in particular to watch over the morals of the young. 
From the name of these Roman officers 
comes our word censorious, meaning 
fault-finding. 

315. Siege and Capture of Veii (405- 
396 b.c); the Romanization of Southern 
Etruria. — We must now turn our atten- 
tion once more to the fortunes of Rome 
in war. Almost from the founding of the 
city we find its warlike citizens carrying 
on a fierce contest with their powerful 
Etruscan neighbors on the north. The 
war finally gathered around Veii, the 
largest and richest of the cities of Etruria. 
According to the tradition, the Romans, 
like the Greeks at Troy, laid siege to this 
city for ten years. The place was at length 
taken and the spoils carried to Rome. 

The siege of Veii forms a sort of land- 
mark in the military history of Rome. 
The length of the siege and the necessity of maintaining a force 
permanently in the field, winter and summer alike, led to the intro- 
duction of pay into the army ; for hitherto the common soldier 




Fig. 79. — Roman 
Soldier 



2l8 THE EARLY REPUBLIC 

had not only equipped himself but had served without pay. From 
this time forward the professional soldier came more and more to 
take the place of the citizen soldier. 

The capture of Veii was followed by that of many other Etrus- 
can towns, and all the southern portion of Etruria, divided into 
four tribes (sec. 301), was added to the Roman domain. 

By this act of incorporation all the Etruscan freemen living in 
these regions and possessing the legal property qualification were 
made citizens of Rome, and were invested with that measure of 
the rights and privileges of Roman citizenship that up to this 
time had been secured by the plebeians. 

Into this rich and inviting region thus opened up to Roman 
enterprise, Roman immigrants now crowded in great numbers, 
and soon all this part of Etruria became Roman in manners, in 
customs, and in speech. 3 The Romanization of Italy was now 
fairly begun. 

At this moment there broke upon the city a storm from the 
north which all but cut short the story we are narrating. 

316. Sack of Rome by the Gauls (390 B.C.). — We have noticed 
how, in early times, Celtic tribes from Gaul crossed the Alps 
and established themselves in Northern Italy. While the Romans 
were conquering the towns of Etruria these barbarian hordes were 
moving southward and overrunning and devastating the countries 
of Central Italy. 

They soon appeared in the neighborhood of Rome. A Roman 
army met them on the banks of the Allia, eleven miles from the 
capital. But an unaccountable panic seized the Romans and they 
abandoned the field in disgraceful flight. It would be impossible 
to picture the consternation and despair that reigned at Rome 
when the fugitives brought to the city intelligence of the terrible 
disaster. It was never forgotten, and the day of the battle of the 
Allia was ever after a black day in the Roman calendar. The 
sacred vessels of the temples were buried ; the eternal fires of 
Vesta were hurriedly borne by their virgin keepers to a place of 

3 Later, the rest of Etruria was absorbed by Rome, and the Etruscan people and 
the Etruscan civilization as distinct factors in history disappeared from the world. 



THE LICINIAN LAWS 219 

safety in Etruria ; and a large part of the population fled in dis- 
may across the Tiber. No attempt was made to defend any 
portion of the city save the citadel. 

The little garrison within the Capitol, under the command of 
the hero Marcus Manlius, for seven months resisted all efforts of 
the Gauls to dislodge them. Finally news was brought the Gauls 
that enemies were overrunning their possessions in Northern Italy. 
This led them to open negotiations with the Romans. For one 
thousand pounds of gold the Gauls agreed to retire from the city. 
As the story runs, while the gold was being weighed out in the 
Forum the Romans complained that the weights were false, when 
Brennus, the Gallic leader, threw his sword also into the scales, 
exclaiming, "Vce victis!" (Woe to the vanquished!) Just at 
this moment, so the tale continues, Camillus, a brave patrician 
general who had been appointed dictator, appeared upon the 
scene with a Roman army that had been gathered from the 
fugitives. As he scattered the barbarians with heavy blows he 
exclaimed, " Rome is ransomed with steel, and not with gold." 

The city was quickly rebuilt. There were some things, how- 
ever, which could not be restored. These were the ancient 
records and documents, through whose irreparable loss the early 
history of Rome is involved in great obscurity. 

317. The Licinian Laws (367 B.C.); the Final "Equalization 
of the Orders." —A great advance of the plebeians towards polit- 
ical equality with the patricians was effected through the passage 
of the Licinian Laws, so called from one of their proposers, the 
tribune Gaius Licinius. Among other provisions these laws con- 
tained the following : (1) That the office of military tribune with 
consular power (sec. 313) should be abolished, that two consuls 
should be chosen yearly as at first, and that one of these should 
be a plebeian ; i (2) that in place of the two keepers of the 

4 When the patricians saw that it would be impossible to prevent the passage 
of the proposals, they had recourse to the old device. They lessened the powers 
of the consulship by taking away from the consuls their judicial functions and 
devolving them upon a new patrician magistrate bearing the name of prcetor. The 
pretext for this was that the plebeians had no knowledge of the sacred formulas 
of the law. 



220 THE EARLY REPUBLIC 

Sibylline Books (sec. 297) there should in the future be ten, and 
that five of these should be plebeians. 

The equalization of the two orders was now practically effected. 
The son of a peasant might rise to the highest office in the state. 
The plebeians gained with comparative ease admission to the 
remaining offices from which the jealousy of the patricians still 
excluded them. 5 

The incorporation of the plebeians with the body of Roman 
citizens with full rights was a matter of immense import for the 
future of Rome. The strength of the state was thereby practically 
doubled, and the city was advanced a long way towards the goal 
of its destiny, — the making of all the world Roman. 

Selections from the Sources. — Plutarch, Life of Gains Marcius 
Coriolanus. Livy, ii. 33, 34, 39, and 40, for the story of Corioianus ; ii. 48 
and 49, for the legend of the Fabii ; iii. 26-28, for that of Cincinnatus ; 
v. 35-49, on the taking of Rome by the Gauls ; v. 50-54, on the debate 
among the Romans in regard to removing to Veii after the sack of Rome 
by the Gauls. The last reference is particularly valuable, since the passage 
here conveys an idea of the feelings of the ancients respecting the sacred- 
ness of the city and the relation of its patron gods to it. 

Secondary Works. — Mommsen, vol. i, bk. ii, chaps, i-iii. Duruy, vol. i, 
chaps, vi-xiii. Pelham, H. F., Outlines of Roman History, bk. ii, chap. i. 
How, W. W., and Leigh, H. D., History of Rome, chaps, v-xiii. Abbott, 
F. F., Roman Political Institutions, pp. 24-56. Ihne, W., Early Rome. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Virtues prized by the early Romans as 
shown by the stories of their heroes. 2. Tales concerning the siege of 
Veii. 3. Legends connected with the sack of Rome by the Gauls. 4. Roman 
magistrates. 5. The Tarpeian Rock. 

5 They secured admission to the dictatorship in 356 B.C.; to the censorship in 
351 B.C. ; to the praetorship in 337 B.C. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY 

(367-264 B.C.) 

318. The Samnites. — The most formidable competitors of the 
Romans for supremacy in Italy were the Samnites, rough and 
warlike mountaineers who held the Apennines to the south- 
east of Latium. The successive struggles between these martial 
races are known as the First, Second, and Third Samnite wars. 
They extended over a period of half a century, and in their 
course involved almost all the states of Italy. Of the first war 
(343-341 B.C.) we know very little, although Livy wrote a long, 
but unfortunately unreliable, account of it. 

319. The Revolt of the Latin Cities (340-338 B.C.). — In the 
midst of the Samnite struggle, Rome was confronted by a danger- 
ous revolt of her Latin allies. 1 Leaving the war unfinished, she 
turned her forces against the insurgents. 

The strife between the Romans and their Latin allies was 
simply, in principle, the old contest within the walls of the capital 
between the patricians and the plebeians transferred to a larger 
arena. As the patricians, before the equalization of the orders, 
had claimed for themselves alone the right to manage the affairs 
of Rome, so now did the united orders claim for Rome alone 
the right to manage the affairs of all Latium. But the Latins had 
become dissatisfied with their position in the unequal alliance, 
and had resolved that Rome should give up the sovereignty she 

1 In the year 493 B.C. Rome had formed a most important league with the Latin 
towns (a renewal probably of an earlier alliance). At the outset this league was 
somewhat such a federation as the Delian League, which Athens just a few years 
before this had formed with her Ionian allies (sec. 186). There is an instructive 
parallel between the way in which Athens used her position in the Delian Confed- 
eracy to establish an empire and the way in which Rome used her position in the 
at first equal alliance between her and the towns of Latium to build up a like 
sovereignty. 

221 



222 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY 

was practically exercising. Accordingly they sent an embassy to 
Rome, demanding that the association should be made one of 
perfect equality. To this end the ambassadors proposed that in 
the future one of the consuls should be a Latin, and that one half 
of the Senate should be chosen from the Latin nation. Rome was 
to be the common fatherland, and all were to bear the Roman 
name. 

These demands of the ambassadors were listened to by the 
Roman senators with amazement and indignation. " O Jupiter ! " 
exclaimed one of the consuls, Titus Manlius by name, addressing 
the statue of the god ; " canst thou endure to behold in thy 
own sacred temple strangers as consuls and as senators?" The 
demands of the Latin allies were refused, and war followed. 

After about three years' hard fighting, the rebellion was sub- 
dued. The Latin League as a political body was now dissolved. 
Several of the towns were allowed to retain their independence ; 
others with their territories were made a part of the Roman 
domain, and became municipia 2 of different grades. The inhab- 
itants of some of these cities were admitted at once to full Roman 
citizenship, while those of others were given only a part of the 
rights and privileges of citizens. To prevent any further combi- 
nation among the cities, intermarriage and trade between them 
were forbidden. 

One noted trophy of the war set up at Rome was the beaks 
{rostra) of the ships of the city of Antium, which were attached 

2 The teacher will best convey to young pupils an understanding of the Roman 
municipal system by having them note the system as it exists among ourselves 
to-day, since our so-called municipal system, in its underlying principle, is an inher- 
itance from Rome. The essential principle involved in the arrangement is local self- 
government carried on under the paramount authority of the state. In working out 
this municipal system Rome laid not only the foundation of her own greatness but, 
transmitting the system as a principle of government to later times, contributed an 
all-important element to the structure of the modern free state. We must not think 
that the problem here solved by Rome was one easy of solution. The difficulties met 
and overcome by her in working out this system were very much like those met and 
overcome by our statesmen of a century and more ago, when they devised the federal 
system and determined what should be the relations of the States of our Union to 
the general government at Washington. Indeed, this whole federal system is nothing 
more than the application to states of the principles of government that Rome 
applied to cities. 



THE SECOND SAMNITE WAR 



223 



to the orator's platform in the Forum ; hence the name Rostra, 
by which this stand was ever afterwards known. 

320. The Second Samnite War (326-304 B.C.). — In a few 
years after the close of the Latin contest, the Romans were at 
war again with their old rivals, the Samnites. The most mem- 
orable event of this struggle was the entrapping and capture of a 
Roman army at the celebrated Caudine Forks. The soldiers 
were deprived of their arms and sent beneath the yoke. 

The war ended in 304 B.C., with the Romans as final victors. 
During its course Rome had added extensive territories to her 
domain, and had e ^ 

made her hold of 
these secure by 
means of colonies 
and military roads ; 
for it was at this time 
that Rome began the 
construction of those 
remarkable highways 
that formed one of 
the most impressive 
features of her later 
empire. The first of 
these roads, which 
ran from Rome to Capua, was begun in the year 312 b.c. by the 
censor Appius Claudius, and called after him the Via Appia. 

321. The Third Samnite War (298-290 B.C.). — It was only a 
few years after the close of their second contest with Rome before 
the Samnites were again in arms and engaged in their third 
struggle with her for supremacy in Italy. This time they suc- 
ceeded in forming against their old enemy a powerful coalition 
which embraced the Etruscans, the Umbrians, the Gauls, and 
other nations. It was easy for them to accomplish this, for the 
rapid advance of the power of Rome had caused all the different 
peoples of the peninsula to realize that unless her encroachments 
were speedily checked their independence would be lost forever. 




Fig. 80. — The Appian Way 
(From a photograph) 



224 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY 

The league was soon shattered by the Roman legions. One 
after another the states and tribes that had joined the alliance 
were chastised, and the Samnites were forced to acknowledge the 
supremacy of Rome. Within a few years after this almost all of 
the Greek cities of Southern Italy, save Tarentum, had also come 
under the growing power of the imperial city. 

322. The War with Tarentum and Pyrrhus (282-272 B.C.). — 
Nor did Tarentum long remain independent. The Tarentines 
having mishandled some Roman prisoners, the Roman Senate 
sent an embassy to Tarentum to demand amends. In the theater, 
in the presence of a great assembly, one of the ambassadors was 
grossly insulted, his toga being befouled by a clownish fellow 
amidst the approving plaudits of a giddy crowd. The ambassador, 
raising the soiled garment, said sternly, " Laugh now ; but you 
will weep when this toga is cleansed with blood." Rome at once 
declared war. 

The Tarentines turned to Greece for aid. Pyrrhus, king of 
Epirus and a cousin of Alexander the Great, who had an ambi- 
tion to build up such an empire in the West as his famous kins- 
man had established in the East, responded to their entreaties, 
and crossed over into Italy with a small army of Greek merce- 
naries and twenty war elephants. 

The hostile armies met at Heraclea (280 B.C.). The battle was 
won for Pyrrhus by his war elephants, the sight of which, being 
new to the Romans, caused them to flee from the field in dismay. 
But Pyrrhus had lost thousands of his best troops. As he looked 
over the battlefield he is said to have turned to his companions 
and remarked, "Another such victory and I shall be ruined "; 
hence the phrase, " a Pyrrhian victory." 

After a second victory as disastrous as his first, Pyrrhus crossed 
over into Sicily to aid the Greeks there, who were being hard 
pressed by the Carthaginians. At first he was everywhere suc- 
cessful, but finally fortune turned against him, and he was glad to 
escape from the island. Recrossing the straits into Italy, he once 
more engaged the Romans ; but at Beneventum he suffered a dis- 
astrous defeat (275 B.C.). Leaving a sufficient force to garrison 



UNITED ITALY 



225 



Tarentum, Pyrrhus now set sail for Epirus. He had scarcely em- 
barked before Tarentum surrendered to the Romans (272 B.C.). 
This ended the struggle for the mastery of Italy. Rome was now 
mistress of all the peninsula south of the Arnus and the Rubicon. 

323. United Italy. — We cannot make out clearly just what 
rights and powers Rome exercised over the various cities, tribes, 
and nations which she had brought under her rule. 3 This much, 
however, is clear. She took away from them the right of making 
war, and thus put a stop to the bloody contentions which from 
time immemorial had raged between the tribes and cities of the 
peninsula. She thus gave Italy what, after she had laid her 
restraining authority upon all the peoples of the Mediterranean 
lands, came to be called the Pax Romana (the Roman Peace). 

This political union of Italy paved the way for the social and 
racial unification of the peninsula. The greatest marvel of all 
history is how Rome, embracing at first merely a handful of 
peasants, could have made so much of the ancient world like unto 
herself in blood, in speech, in custom, and in manners. That she 
did so, that she did thus Romanize a large part of the peoples of 
antiquity, is one of the most important matters in the history of 
the human race. Rome accomplished this great feat in large 
measure by means of her system of colonization, which was, in 
some respects, unlike that of any other people in ancient or in 
modern times. We must make ourselves familiar with some of the 
main features of this unique colonial system. 

324. Roman Colonies and Latin Colonies. — The colonies that- 
Rome established in conquered territories fall into two classes, 
known as Roman colonies and Latin colonies. Roman colonies 
were made up of emigrants, generally three hundred in number, 
who retained in the new settlement all the rights and privileges, 
both private and public, of Roman citizens, though of course 
some of these rights, as for instance that of voting in the public 
assemblies at Rome, could be exercised by the colonist only 

3 We refer here, not to those territories and communities which Rome had actu- 
ally incorporated with the Roman domain, but to those communities to which was 
given the name of Italian allies. 



226 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY 

through his return to the capital. Usually it was some conquered 
city that was occupied by the Roman colonists, the old inhabit- 
ants either being expelled in whole or in part or reduced to a 
subject condition. The colonists in their new homes organized a 
government which was almost an exact imitation of that of Rome, 
and through their own assemblies and their own magistrates man- 
aged all their local affairs. These colonies were in effect just so 
many miniature Romes, — centers from which radiated Roman 
culture into all the regions round about them. 

The Latin colonies were so called, not because they were 
founded by Latin settlers, but because their inhabitants possessed 
substantially the same rights as the old Latin towns enjoyed that 
had retained their independence at the end of the great Latin War 
(sec. 319). The Latin colonist possessed some of the most valu- 
able of the private rights of Roman citizens, together with the 
capacity to acquire the suffrage by migrating to the capital and 
taking up, under certain conditions, a permanent residence there. 

The Latin colonies numbered about twenty at the time of the 
Second Punic War. They were scattered everywhere throughout 
Italy, and were, even to a much greater degree than the Roman 
colonies, active and powerful agents in the dissemination of the 
Roman language, law, and culture. They were Rome's chief aux- 
iliary in her great task of making all Italy Roman. 

All these colonies were kept in close touch with the capital by 
means of splendid military roads, the construction of which, as we 
have seen, was begun during the Second Samnite War (sec. 320). 

Selections from the Sources. — Plutarch, Life of Pyrrhus. Livy, 
ix. 2-6, the Roman defeat at Caudine Forks ; and x. 28 and 29, the 
self-sacrifice of Decius Mus. 

Secondary Works. — Mommsen, vol. i, bk. ii, chaps, iv-ix. Ihne, 
vol. i, bk. iii, chap, xviii, " Condition of the Roman People before the Begin- 
ning of the Wars with Carthage." Freeman, E. A., The Story of Sicily, 
chap, xiii, " Pyrrhus in Italy." Pelham, H. F., Outlines of Roman History, 
bk. ii, chap. ii. How, W. W., and Leigh, H. D., History of Rome, chaps, 
xiii-xvii. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The Roman municipal system. 2. Tales 
of Pyrrhus. 3. The Roman colonial system. 



CHAPTER XXIX 
THE PUNIC WARS 

I. The First Punic War (264-241 b.c.) 

325. Carthage and her Empire. — Foremost among the colonies 
founded by the Phoenicians was Carthage, upon the northern coast 
of Africa. 1 Its favorable location upon one of the best harbors of 
the African coast gave the city a vast and lucrative commerce. By 
the time Rome had extended her authority over Italy, Carthage 
held sway over the northern coast of Africa, and possessed the 
larger part of Sicily as well as Sardinia. She also collected tribute 
from the natives of Corsica and of Southern Spain. With all 
its shores dotted with her colonies and fortresses and swept in 
every direction by her war galleys, the Western Mediterranean 
had become a " Phoenician lake," in which, as the Carthaginians 
boasted, no one dared wash his hands without their permission. 

The government of Carthage was democratic in theory but oli- 
garchic in fact. Corresponding to the Roman consuls, two magis- 
trates stood at the head of the state. The Senate was composed 
of the heads of the leading families ; its duties and powers were 
very like those of the Roman Senate. The religion of the Cartha- 
ginians was the old Canaanitish worship of Baal. To this cruel 
fire-god they offered human sacrifices. 

326. Rome and Carthage compared. — These two rival cities 
were now about to -begin one of the most memorable struggles 
of antiquity. In material power and resources they seemed well 
matched as antagonists ; yet Rome had elements of strength, 
hidden in the character of her citizens and embodied in the 
principles of her government, which Carthage did not possess. 
Carthage was a despotic oligarchy. The many different races of 
the Carthaginian Empire were held in an artificial union by force 

1 For geographical names mentioned in this chapter, see map at p. 236. 

227 



228 THE PUNIC WARS 

alone, for the Carthaginians had none of the genius of the Romans 
for political organization and state building. The Roman state, 
on the other hand, as we have learned, was the most wonderful 
political organism that the world had ever seen. It was not 
yet a nation, but it was rapidly growing into one. Every free 
man within its limits was either a citizen of Rome, or was on 
the way to becoming a citizen. Rome was. already the common 
fatherland of more than a quarter of a million of men. 

Again, the Carthaginian territories, though of great extent, were 
widely scattered, while the Roman domains were compact and 
confined to a single and easily defended peninsula. 

As to the naval resources of the two states, there existed at 
the beginning of the struggle no basis for a comparison. The 
Romans were almost destitute of anything that could be called 
a war navy, 2 and were practically without experience in naval 
warfare ; while the Carthaginians possessed the largest, the best 
manned, and the most splendidly equipped fleet that had ever 
patrolled the waters of the Mediterranean. 

And in another respect Carthage had an immense advantage 
over Rome. She had Hannibal. Rome had some great com- 
manders, but she had none like him. 

327. The Beginning of the War Lying between Italy and the 

coast of Africa is the large island of Sicily. At the commencement 
of the First Punic War, the Carthaginians held possession of all 
the island save a strip of the eastern coast, which was under the 
sway of the Greek city of Syracuse. The Greeks and the Cartha- 
ginians had carried on an almost uninterrupted struggle through 
two centuries for the control of the island, but the Romans had 
not yet set foot upon it. In the year 264 B.C., however, on a 
flimsy pretext of giving protection to some friends, the Romans 
crossed over to the island. That act committed them to a career 
of conquest destined to continue till their armies had made the 
circuit of the Mediterranean lands. 

2 Polybius (i. 20) says that they did not have a single galley when they first 
crossed over to Sicily. He says they ferried their army across in boats borrowed 
from the Greek cities of Southern Italy. 






ROME'S FIRST NAVAL VICTORY 



229 



The Syracusans and Carthaginians, old enemies and rivals 
though they had been, joined their forces against the new- 
comers. The allies were defeated in the first battle, and the 
Roman army obtained a sure foothold in the island. Hiero, king 
of Syracuse, seeing that he was upon the losing side, forsook the 
Carthaginians, formed an alliance with the Romans, and ever 
after remained their firm friend. 

328. The Romans gain their First Naval Victory (260 B.C.). — 
Their experience during the past campaigns had shown the 
Romans that if they were to cope successfully with the Cartha- 
ginians, they must be able to meet them 
upon the sea as well as upon the land. 
So they determined to build a fleet. A 
Carthaginian galley, tradition says, that 
had been wrecked upon the shores of 
Italy served as a pattern. 3 It is affirmed 
that within the short space of sixty days 
a growing forest was converted into a 
fleet of one hundred and twenty war 
galleys. 

The consul G. Duillius was intrusted 
with the command of the fleet. He met 
the Carthaginian squadron near the city 
and promontory of Mylae, on the north- 
ern coast of Sicily. Now, distrusting 
their ability to match the skill of their 
enemy in naval tactics, the Romans had 




Fig. 81. — The Column 
of Duillius 
(A restoration) 

provided each of their vessels with a The column was decorated with 

drawbridge. As soon as a Carthaginian the P rows of captured ships 
ship came near enough to a Roman vessel, this gangway was 
allowed to fall upon the approaching galley ; and the Roman 
soldiers, rushing along the bridge, were soon engaged in a 



3 The Greek and Etruscan ships were merely triremes, that is, galleys with three 
banks of oars; while the Carthaginian ships were quinqueremes, or vessels with five 
rows of oars. The former were unable to cope with the latter, such an advantage 
did these have in their greater weight and height. 



230 THE PUNIC WARS 

hand-to-hand conflict with their enemies, in which species of 
encounter the former were unequaled. The result was a com- 
plete victory for the Romans. 

The joy at Rome was unbounded. It inspired in the more 
sanguine splendid visions of maritime command and glory. The 
Mediterranean should speedily become a Roman lake in which 
no vessel might float without the consent of Rome. 

329. The Romans carry the War into Africa. — The Romans 
now resolved to carry the war into Africa. An immense Cartha- 
ginian fleet that disputed the passage of the Roman squadron was 
almost annihilated, and the Romans disembarked near Carthage 
(256 B.C.). At first they were successful in all their operations. 
Finally, however, Regulus, one of the consuls who led the army 
of invasion, suffered a crushing defeat and was made prisoner. 
A fleet which was sent to bear away the remnants of the shattered 
army was wrecked in a terrific storm off the coast of Sicily. A 
second expedition to Africa ended in like disaster to the Romans, 
with the loss of another great fleet. 

330. Regulus and the Carthaginian Embassy. — For a few years 
the Romans refrained from tempting again the hostile powers of 
the sea, and Sicily became once more the battle ground of the 
contending rivals. At last, having lost a great battle (battle of 
Panormus, 251 B.C.), the Carthaginians became dispirited, and 
sent an embassy to Rome to negotiate for peace. Among the 
commissioners was Regulus, who, since his capture five years 
before, had been held a prisoner in Africa. Before leaving Car- 
thage he had promised to return if the embassy were unsuccessful. 
For the sake of his own release, the Carthaginians supposed he 
would counsel peace, or at least urge an exchange of prisoners. 
But it is related that, upon arrival at Rome, he counseled war 
instead of peace, at the same time revealing to the Senate the 
enfeebled condition of Carthage. As to the exchange of prisoners, 
he said, " Let those who have surrendered when they ought to 
have died, die in the land which has witnessed their disgrace." 

The Roman Senate, following his counsel, rejected all the pro- 
posals of the embassy; and Regulus, in spite of the tears and 



LOSS OF TWO ROMAN FLEETS 



231 



entreaties of his wife and friends, turned away from Rome, and 
set out for Carthage, to meet whatever fate the Carthaginians, in 
their disappointment and anger, might plan for him. The tradi- 
tion affirms that he was put to a cruel death. 

331, Loss of Two More Roman Fleets. — After the failure of the 
Carthaginian embassy the war went on for several years by land 
and by sea with many vicissitudes. At last, on the coast of Sicily, 
one of the consuls, Claudius, met with an overwhelming defeat. 4 
Almost a hundred vessels of his fleet were lost. The disaster 
caused the greatest alarm at 
Rome. Superstition in- 
creased the fears of the 
people. It was reported that 
just before the battle, when 
the auspices were being taken 
and the sacred chickens 
would not eat, Claudius had 
given orders to have them 
thrown into the sea, irrever- 
ently remarking, "At any 
rate, they shall drink." Im- 
agination was free to depict 
what further evils the 
offended gods might inflict 
upon the Roman state. 

The gloomiest forebod- 
ings might have found justi- 
fication in subsequent events. The other consul just now met 
with a great disaster. He was proceeding along the southern 
coast of Sicily with a fleet of over nine hundred war galleys and 
transports, when a severe storm arising, the squadron was beaten 
to pieces upon the rocks. Not a single ship escaped. 

332. Close of the First Punic War (241 B.C.). — The war had 
now lasted for fifteen years. Four Roman fleets had been de- 
stroyed, three of which had been sunk or broken to pieces by 

4 In a sea fight at Drepana, 249 B.C. 




Fig. 82.- — Augur's Birds. (After a 
drawing based on an ancient relief) 

The knowledge sought was gained by observ- 
ing the birds' manner of taking their food. 
Their refusal to eat was an unlucky omen 



232 



THE PUNIC WARS 



storms. It was several years before the Romans regained sufficient 
courage to again commit their fortune to the element that had 
been so unfriendly to them. A fleet of two hundred vessels was 
then built and equipped, entirely by private subscription, and 
intrusted to the command of the consul Catulus. He met the 
Carthaginian fleet near the ^Egatian Islands, and inflicted upon 
it a crushing defeat (241 B.C.). 

The Carthaginians now sued for peace. A treaty was at length 
arranged, the terms of which required that Carthage should give 
up all claims to the island of Sicily, surrender all her prisoners, 
and pay an indemnity of 3200 talents (about $4,000,000), one 
third of which was to be paid down, and the balance in ten 
yearly payments. Thus ended (241 B.C.), after a continuance 
of twenty-four years, the first great struggle between Carthage 
and Rome. 

One important result of the war was the crippling of the sea 
power of the Phoenician race, which from time immemorial had 
been a most prominent factor in the history of the Mediterranean 
lands, and the giving practically of the control of the sea into the 
hands of the Romans. 

II Rome and Carthage between the First and 
the Second Punic War (241-218 b.c.) 

333. The First Roman Province and the Beginning of the 
Provincial System (241 B.C.). — For the twenty-three years fol- 
lowing the close of the first struggle between Rome and Carthage 
the two rivals strained every power and taxed every resource in 
preparation for a renewal of the contest. 

The Romans settled the affairs of Sicily, organizing all of it, 
save the lands in the eastern part belonging to Syracuse, as a 
province of the Republic. This was the first Roman province, but 
as the imperial city extended her conquests, her provincial posses- 
sions increased in number and size until they formed at last a 
perfect cordon about the Mediterranean. Each province was gov- 
erned by a magistrate exercising both civil and military authority, 




■ ^Kaiirawan 

EUROPE »^_s_idIs 

AT THE ACCESSION OE THE EMPEROR tr^Sb-* 

CHARLES V 

1519 

Boundary of Empire thus: — 

50 100 200 300 40 

Scale ofMiles. 



Syracuse 



Malta*-^ 
Clo Spain) ^ 




'. Tripoli... > 

( . '(ToSpari,j___ ,1 



Longitude West 



Lotigitude East 10 from Greenwich 






ROME ACQUIRES SARDINIA AND CORSICA 233 

and paid an annual tribute in kind, or a money tax, to Rome, 
something that had never been exacted of the Italian allies. 

This Roman provincial system presented a sharp contrast to 
that liberal system of federation and incorporation that formed 
the very corner stone of the Roman power in Italy. There 
Rome had made all, or substantially all, of the conquered peoples 
either citizens or close confederates. Against the provincials she 
not only closed the gates of the city but denied to the most of 
them all but the mere name of allies. She made them practically 
her subjects, and administered their affairs not in their interest 
but in her own. This illiberal policy contributed largely, as we 
shall learn, to the undoing of the Roman Republic. 

334. Rome acquires Sardinia and Corsica; the Second Province 
(227 b.c). — The first acquisition by the Romans of lands beyond 
the peninsula seems to have created in them an insatiable ambition 
for foreign conquests. They soon found a pretext for seizing the 
island of Sardinia, the most ancient, and, after Sicily, the most 
prized of the possessions of the Carthaginians. This island in con- 
nection with Corsica, which was also seized, was formed into a 
Roman province (227 B.C.). With her hands upon these islands, 
the authority of Rome in the Western or Tuscan Sea was supreme. 

335. War with the Gauls; Roman Authority extended to the 
Alps. — In the north, during this same period, Roman authority 
was extended from the Apennines and the Rubicon to the foot 
of the Alps. Alarmed at the advance of the Romans, who were 
pushing northward their great military road, called the Flaminian 
Way,-Gallic tribes both sides the Alps gathered for an assault upon 
Rome. Intelligence of this movement among the northern tribes 
threw all Italy into a fever of excitement. At Rome the terror was 
great ; for not yet had died out of memory what the city had once 
suffered at the hands of the ancestors of these same barbarians 
(sec. 316). An ancient prediction, found in the Sibylline Books, 
declared that a portion of Roman territory must needs be occu- 
pied by Gauls. Hoping sufficiently to fulfill the prophecy and 
satisfy fate, the Roman Senate caused two Gauls to be buried 
alive in one of the public squares of the capital. 



234 THE PUNIC WARS 

Meanwhile the barbarians had advanced into Etruria, ravaging 
the country as they moved southward. At Telamon they were sur- 
rounded by the Roman armies and almost annihilated (225 B.C.). 
The Romans, taking advantage of this victory, pushed on into the 
plains of the Po, captured the city now known as Milan, and 
extended their authority to the foothills of the Alps. 

336. Carthage in the Truceless War (241-237 B.C.). — Scarcely 
had peace been concluded with Rome at the end of the First 
Punic War, before Carthage was plunged into a still deadlier 
struggle, which for a time threatened her very existence. Her 
mercenary troops, upon their return from Sicily, revolted on 
account of being unpaid. Their appeal to the native tribes of 
Africa was answered by a general uprising throughout the depend- 
encies of Carthage. The extent of the revolt shows how hated 
was the rule of the great capital over her subject states. 

The war was unspeakably bitter and cruel. It is known in 
history as " the Truceless War." But the genius of the great Car- 
thaginian general Hamilcar Barca at last triumphed, and the 
authority of Carthage was everywhere restored. 

337. The Carthaginians in Spain. — After the disastrous ending 
of the First Punic War, the Carthaginians sought to repair their 
losses by new conquests in Spain. Hamilcar Barca was sent over 
into that country, and for nine years he devoted his commanding 
genius to organizing the different Iberian tribes into a compact 
state, and to developing the rich gold and silver mines of the 
southern part of the peninsula. He fell in battle 228 B.C.. 

As a rule, genius is not transmitted ; but in the Barcine family 
the rule was broken, and the rare genius of Hamilcar reappeared 
in his sons, whom he himself, it is said, was fond of calling the 
" lion's brood." Hannibal, the eldest, was only nineteen at the 
time of his father's death, and being thus too young to assume 
command, Hasdrubal, the son-in-law of Hamilcar, was chosen to 
succeed him. 

338. Hannibal's Vow ; he attacks Saguntum. — Upon the death 
of Hasdrubal, which occurred 221 B.C., Hannibal, now twenty- 
six years of age, was by the unanimous voice of the army called 



HANNIBAL'S PASSAGE OF THE ALPS 



235 



to be its leadef. When a child of nine years he had been led by 
his father to the altar, and there, with his hands upon the sacri- 
fice, the little boy had sworn eternal hatred to the Roman race. 
He was driven on to his gigantic undertakings and to his hard 
fate not only by the restless fires of his warlike genius but, as he 
himself declared, by the sacred obliga- 
tions of a vow that could not be broken. 

In two years Hannibal extended the 
Carthaginian power to the Ebro. Sagun- 
tum, a native city upon the east coast 
of Spain, alone remained unsubdued. 
The Romans, who were jealously watch- 
ing affairs in the peninsula, had entered 
into an alliance with this city, and taken 
it, with some Greek cities at the foot of 
the Pyrenees, under their protection. 
Hannibal laid siege to the place in the 
spring of 219 B.C. The Roman Senate 
sent messengers to him forbidding him 
to make war upon a city that was an ally of the Roman people ; 
but Hannibal, disregarding their remonstrances, continued the 
siege, and after an investment of eight months gained possession 
of the town. 

The Romans now sent commissioners to Carthage to demand 
of the senate that they give up Hannibal to them, and by so 
doing repudiate the act of their general. The Carthaginians 
hesitated. Then Quintus Fabius, chief of the embassy, gathering 
up his toga, said : "I carry here peace and war ; ehoose, men of 
Carthage, which ye will have." " Give us whichever ye will," was 
the reply. " War, then," said Fabius, dropping his toga. 




Fig. 83. — Hannibal 



III. The Second Punic War (218-201 b.c.) 

339. HannibaPs Passage of the Alps. — The Carthaginian 
Empire was now all astir with preparations for the mighty 
struggle. Hannibal was the life and soul of every movement. 



236 THE PUNIC WARS 

His bold plan was to cross the Pyrenees and the- Alps and de- 
scend upon Rome from the north. Early in the spring of 2 18 B.C., 
he set out from New Carthage with an army numbering about 
a hundred thousand men, and including thirty-seven war ele- 
phants. Traversing Northern Spain and crossing the Pyrenees 
and the Rhone, he reached the foothills of the Alps, probably 
under the pass known to-day as the Little St. Bernard. The 
season was already far advanced, — it was October, — and snow 
was falling upon the higher portions of the trail, so that the pas- 
sage of the mountains was accomplished only after severe toil and 
losses. At length the thinned columns, numbering barely twenty 
thousand men, issued from the denies of the foothills upon the 
plains of the Po. This was the pitiable force with which Hannibal 
proposed to attack the Roman state, — a state that at this time 
had on its levy lists over seven hundred thousand foot soldiers 
and seventy thousand horse. 

340. Battle of the Ticinus, of the Trebia, and of Lake Trasi- 
menus. — The Romans had not the remotest idea of Hannibal's 
plans. With war determined upon, the Senate had sent one of 
the consuls, Tiberius Sempronius, with an army into Africa by the 
way of Sicily ; while the other, Publius Cornelius Scipio, they had 
directed to lead another army into Spain. 

While the Senate were watching the movements of these ex- 
peditions, they were startled by the intelligence that Hannibal, 
instead of being in Spain, had crossed the Pyrenees and was 
among the Gauls upon the Rhone. Sempronius was hastily 
recalled from his attempt upon Africa to the defense of Italy. 
Scipio, on his way to Spain, had touched at Massilia, and there 
learned of the movements of Hannibal. He sent his army on to 
Spain under the command of his brother, to prevent Hannibal's 
receiving any reinforcements from that quarter. He himself 
turned back, hurried into Northern Italy, and took command of 
the levies there. The cavalry of the two armies met upon the 
banks of the Ticinus. The Romans were driven from the field by 
the fierce onset of the Numidian horsemen. Scipio now awaited 
the arrival of the other consular army, which was hurrying up 













50 


10 5 





5 


10 






/ 1 v 


^1 ^ 








^/V 


M \ 




/ ^r~~-~y ^^-j*- 




1 V?. 


1 1 




/ liT^ Q i 


JS? — " 










15 


/ / ^%^ ->?■ / 


L ^-\\^ 










— " — ——/J* 1 








/ p ^-Cv / / 


% *( 


- ,e s ^ 


' ) Placentia / 


10 


/ 7 *nL N. ^~~^i q 4 t *n 

TrCl pL -Al 

/ /V^^LJ 1 ^l TV 

/ v/ / r^s — J y y^ 


1?a ^c^-Oj 

^0 jMassl 


CORSICA^ J 


\~lR. A rnO X 

r~r- — s^ &- 
•1 ?, r*-*C 

RomS 


35 


J X C 6 / if aeuntu ^ cp%^5r4- 

S V-' / / / -B^ V 1 


BARmNljh j 


■iEOATIAH»Sy-J 

LilybaeuriN^ 






N V it I 


Utica'f 

D 1 A Zami 

Hadrametuu 


sJ Agrigentu 
a Ca£hage EcI1 




/ / 






y°j> 

cesser Syrtis 




/ THE MEDITERRANEAN LANDS 




30 


-—--____/ AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 








7 SECOND PUNIC WAR 






/ 100 200 300 


400 500 


600 




/ Scale of Miles- 








/ Roman Possessions and Allies [^ 


.Free Greek States L 






/ Carthaginian a " [ 


Syrian Possessions (~ "1 






/ Macedonian " " 1 


Egyptian 

_L 


- □ 






5 


5 


10 






Gal** 



4*M 



»0 °;S yV> DS3 ^ ct?s o9 



°* THE seleVc^ 






CRfT* 5 



papfcus 



%,, 



».** 



».1CA 






Je *a* 



%. * 



FABIUS "THE DELAYER" 237 

through Italy by forced marches. In the battle of the Trebia 
(218 B.C.) the united armies of the two consuls were drawn into 
an ambuscade and almost annihilated. 

The spring following the victory at the Trebia, Hannibal led 
his army, now recruited by many Gauls, across the Apennines, 
and moved southward. At Lake Trasimenus he entrapped the 
Romans under the consul Gaius Flaminius between the hills and 
the lake, where, bewildered by a fog, the greater part of the army 
was slaughtered, and the consul himself was slain (217 B.C.). 

341. Fabius "the Delayer." — The way to Rome was now 
open. Believing that Hannibal would march directly upon the 
capital, the Senate caused the bridges that spanned the Tiber to 
be destroyed, and appointed Fabius Maximus dictator. But Han- 
nibal did not deem it wise to throw his troops against the walls 
of Rome. Crossing the Apennines, he pressed eastward to the 
Adriatic, and then marched southward into Apulia. The fate of 
Rome was in the hands of Fabius. Should he risk a battle and 
lose it, everything would be lost. He determined to adopt a more 
prudent policy, — to follow and annoy with his small force the 
Carthaginian army, but to refuse all proffers of battle. Thus 
time would be gained for raising a new army and perfecting 
measures for the public defense. 

In every possible way Hannibal endeavored to draw his enemy 
into an engagement. He ravaged the fields far and wide and 
fired the homesteads of the Italians, in order to force Fabius to 
fight in their defense. The soldiers of the dictator began to 
murmur. They called him Cunctator, " the Delayer." But noth- 
ing moved him from the steady pursuit of the policy which he 
clearly saw was the only prudent one to follow. 

342. The Battle of Cannae (216 B.C.). — The time gained by 
Fabius had enabled the Romans to raise and discipline an army 
that might hope to engage successfully the Carthaginian forces. 
Early in the summer of the year 216 B.C. these new levies, num- 
bering eighty thousand men, under the command of the recently 
chosen consuls Paulus and Varro, confronted the army of Han- 
nibal, amounting to not more than half that number, at Cannae, 



238 THE PUNIC WARS 

on the banks of the Aufidus, in Apulia. It was the largest army 
Rome had ever gathered on any battlefield. Through the skill- 
ful maneuvers of Hannibal, the Romans were completely sur- 
rounded and huddled together in a helpless mass; then they 
were cut down by the Numidian cavalry. From forty to seventy 
thousand are said to have been slain ; 5 a few thousand were taken 
prisoners ; only a handful escaped. The slaughter was so great 
that, according to Livy, when Mago, a brother of Hannibal, car- 
ried the news of the victory to Carthage, he, in confirmation of 
the intelligence, poured out on the floor of the senate house nearly 
a peck of gold rings taken from the fingers of Roman knights. 

343. Events after the Battle of Cannae. — The awful news flew 
to Rome. Consternation and despair seized the people. The city 
would have been emptied of its population had not the Senate 
ordered the gates to be closed. Never did that body display 
greater calmness, wisdom, and resolution. Little by little the 
panic was allayed. Measures were concerted for the defense of 
the capital, as it was expected that Hannibal would immediately 
march upon the city. Swift horsemen were sent out along the 
Appian Way to gather information of the conqueror's movements, 
and to learn, as Livy expresses it, " if the immortal gods, out of 
pity to the empire, had left any remnant of the Roman name." 

But Hannibal did not deem it prudent to fight the Romans 
behind their walls. He even sent an embassy to Rome to offer 
terms of peace. The Senate would not even permit the ambas- 
sadors to enter the gates. Hardly less disappointed was Hannibal 
in the temper of the Roman confederates. All the allies of the 
Latin name adhered to Rome through all these trying times with 
unshaken loyalty. Some tribes in the south of Italy, however, 
among which were the Lucanians and the Apulians, now went 
over to the Carthaginians. Capua also seceded from Rome and 
entered into an alliance with Hannibal, who quartered his army 
for the winter following the battle of Cannae in the luxurious city. 
A little later Syracuse also was lost to Rome. 

5 Polybius (iii. 117) places the killed at 70,000 and the prisoners at 10,000 ; Livy 
(xxii. 49) puts the number of the slain at 42,700. 



FALL OF SYRACUSE AND CAPUA 239 

344. The Fall of Syracuse (212 b.c.) and of Capua (2 1 1 B.C.). — 
While Hannibal was resting in Capua and awaiting reenforcements, 
Rome was busy raising and equipping new levies to take the place 
of the legions lost at Cannae. The first task to be undertaken was 
the chastisement of Syracuse for its desertion of the Roman alli- 
ance. The distinguished general, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, 
called " the Sword of Rome," was intrusted with this commission. 
In the year 214 B.C. he laid siege to the city. For three years it 
held out against the Roman forces. It is said that Archimedes, 
the great mathematician, rendered valuable aid to the besieged 
with curious and powerful engines contrived by his genius. But 
the city fell at last, and was given over to sack and pillage (212 B.C.). 
Syracuse never recovered from the blow inflicted upon it at this 
time by the relentless Romans. 

Capua must next be punished for opening its gates and extend- 
ing its hospitalities to the enemies of Rome. A line of circum- 
vallation was drawn about the city, and two Roman armies held 
it in close siege. Hannibal endeavored to create a diversion in 
favor of his allies by making a dash on Rome, — legend says that 
he rang a defiant lance against one of the city gates, — but he 
failed to draw the legions from before Capua, and was forced to 
abandon the Capuans to their fate. The city soon fell, and paid 
the penalty that Rome never failed to inflict upon an unfaithful 
ally. The chief men of the place were put to death and a large 
part of the inhabitants sold as slaves (211 B.C.). 

345. Hasdrubal attempts to carry Aid to his Brother; Battle of 
the Metaurus (207 B.C.). — During all the years Hannibal was 
waging war in Italy, his brother Hasdrubal was carrying on a 
desperate struggle with the Roman armies in Spain. At length 
he determined to leave the conduct of the war in that country to 
others and go to the relief of his brother, who was sadly in need 
of aid. He followed the same route that had been taken by Han- 
nibal, and in the year 207 B.C. descended from the Alps upon the 
plains of Northern Italy. Thence he advanced southward, while 
Hannibal moved northward from Bruttium to join him. Rome 
made a supreme effort to prevent the junction of the armies of 



240 THE PUNIC WARS 

the two brothers. At the river Metaurus, Hasdrubal's march was 
blocked by a large Roman army. Here his forces were cut to 
pieces, and he himself was slain (207 B.C.). His head was 
severed from his body and sent to Hannibal. Upon recognizing 
the features of his brother, Hannibal, it is said, exclaimed sadly, 
"Carthage, I read thy fate." 

346. The Romans carry the War into Africa ; Battle of Zama 
(202 B.C.). — Hannibal now drew back into the rocky peninsula 
of Bruttium. There he faced the Romans like a lion at bay. No 
one dared attack him. It was resolved to carry the war into 
Africa, in hopes that the Carthaginians would be forced to call 
their great commander out of Italy to the defense of Carthage. 
Publius Cornelius Scipio (son of the consul mentioned above, 
sec. 340) led the army of invasion. He had not been long in 
Africa before the Carthaginian senate sent for Hannibal. At 
Zama, not far from Carthage, the hostile armies met. Hannibal 
here suffered his first and last defeat (202 B.C.). 

347. The Close of the War (201 B.C.). — Carthage was now 
completely exhausted, and sued for peace. The terms of the 
treaty were much severer than those imposed upon the city at 
the end of the First Punic War. She was required to give up all 
claims to Spain and the islands of the Mediterranean ; to sur- 
render her war elephants, and all her ships of war save ten 
galleys ; to pay an indemnity of four thousand talents (about 
$5,000,000) at once, and two hundred talents annually for fifty 
years ; and not, under any circumstances, to make war upon an 
ally of Rome. Five hundred of the costly Phoenician war galleys 
were towed out of the harbor of Carthage and burned in full sight 
of the citizens. 

Such was the end of the Hannibalic War, as called by the 
Romans. Scipio was accorded a grand triumph at Rome, and in 
honor of his achievements given the surname Africanus. 6 

6 Some time after the close of the Second Punic War, the Romans, persuading 
themselves that Hannibal was preparing Carthage for another war, demanded his 
surrender by the Carthaginians. He fled to Syria, and thence to Asia Minor, where, 
to avoid capture, he committed suicide by means of poison (183 B.C.). 



EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON ITALY 241 

348. Effects of the War on Italy. — Italy never entirely recov- 
ered from the calamitous effects of this war. Agriculture in 
some districts was almost ruined. The peasantry had been torn 
from the soil and driven within the walled towns. The slave class 
had increased, and the estates of the great landowners had con- 
stantly grown in size, and absorbed the little holdings of the ruined 
peasants. In thus destroying the Italian peasantry, Hannibal's 
invasion and long occupancy of the peninsula did very much to 
aggravate all those economic evils which even before this time 
were at work undermining the earlier sound industrial life of the 
Romans, and filling Italy with a numerous and dangerous class of 
homeless and discontented men. 

IV. Events between the Second and the Third 
Punic War (201-146 b.c.) 

349. Introductory. — The terms imposed upon Carthage at the 
end of the Second Punic War left Rome mistress of the Western 
Mediterranean. During the eventful half century that elapsed 
between the close of that struggle and the breaking out of the 
Third Punic War, her authority became supreme also in the East- 
ern Mediterranean. In an earlier chapter in which we narrated 
the fortunes of the most important states into which the great 
empire of Alexander was broken at his death, we followed their 
several histories until one after another they fell beneath the 
arms of Rome, and were successively absorbed into her growing 
dominions (Chapter XX). We shall therefore in this place speak 
of these states only in the briefest manner, merely indicating the 
connection of their affairs with the series of events which mark 
the advance of Rome to universal empire. 

350. The Battle of Cynoscephalae (197 b.c). — Rome came 
first into hostile relations with Macedonia. During the Second 
Punic War Philip V of that kingdom had entered into an alliance 
with Hannibal. He was now troubling the Greek cities which were 
under the protection of Rome. For these things the Roman 
Senate resolved to punish him. 



242 THE PUNIC WARS 

An army under Flamininus was sent into Greece, and on the 
plains of Cynoscephalse, in Thessaly, the Roman legion demon- 
strated its superiority over the unwieldy Macedonian phalanx by 
subjecting Philip to a most disastrous defeat. The king was forced 
to give up all his conquests, and the Greek cities that had been 
brought into subjection to Macedonia were declared free. Unfor- 
tunately the Greeks had lost all capacity for self-government, and 
the anarchy into which their affairs soon fell afforded the Romans 
an excuse for extending their rule over all Greece. 

351. The Battle of Magnesia (190 B.C.). — Antiochus the Great 
(223-187 B.C.) of Syria had at this time not only made impor- 
tant conquests in Asia Minor but had even carried his arms into 
Europe. As soon as intelligence of his movements was carried to 
Italy, the legions of the Republic were set in motion. At Mag- 
nesia, in Asia Minor, Antiochus was overthrown, and a large part 
of Lesser Asia fell into the hands of the Romans. Not yet pre- 
pared to maintain provinces so remote from the Tiber, the Senate 
conferred the greater part of the new territory upon their friend 
and ally, Eumenes, king of Pergamum (sec. 231, n. 3). This 
" Kingdom of Asia," as it was called, was really nothing more 
than a dependency of Rome, and its nominal ruler only a puppet 
king in the hands of the Roman Senate. 

352. The Battle of Pydna (168 B.C.). — And now Macedonia, 
under the leadership of Perseus, son of Philip V, was again in 
arms and offering defiance to Rome ; but in the year 168 B.C. the 
Roman consul yEmilius Paulus crushed the Macedonian power 
forever upon the memorable field of Pydna. Twenty-two years 
later (146 B.C.) the country was organized as a Roman province. 
The short but great part which Macedonia as an independent 
state had played in history was ended. She now drops below the 
historical horizon. 

353. The Destruction of Corinth (146 B.C.). — During the last 
war between Rome and Macedonia the cities of the Achaean 
League (sec. 233) had shown themselves lukewarm in their 
friendship for Rome. Consequently, after the battle of Pydna, 
the Romans collected a thousand of the chief citizens of these 



THE DESTRUCTION OF CORINTH 243 

federated cities and transported them to Italy, where they were 
held for seventeen years as hostages for the good conduct of 
their countrymen at home. Among these exiles was the cele- 
brated historian Polybius, who wrote an account of all these 
events which we ar-e now narrating and which mark the advance 
of Rome to the sovereignty of the world. 

At the end of the period named, the Roman Senate, in an 
indulgent mood, gave the survivors permission to return home. 
They went back inflamed with hatred towards Rome, and became 
active in the cities of the league in stirring up feeling against her. 
In Corinth particularly the people displayed the most unreasonable 
and vehement hostility towards the Romans. There could be but 
one issue of this conduct, and that was war with Rome. 

This came in the year 147 B.C. Corinth was soon in the hands 
of the Romans. The men were killed, and the women and chil- 
dren sold into slavery. Much of the booty was sold on the spot 
at public auction. But a large part of the rich art treasures of the 
city must have been destroyed by the rude and unappreciative 
soldiers. Polybius, who was an eyewitness of the sack of the city, 
himself saw groups of soldiers using priceless paintings as boards 
on which to play their games of dice. 

The despoiled city, in obedience to the command of the 
Roman Senate, was given to the flames, its walls were leveled, 
and the very ground on which it had stood was accursed. 

354. Effects upon Rome of her Conquest of the East. — In 
entering the lands beyond the Adriatic the Romans had entered 
the homeland of Greek culture, with which they had first come in 
close contact in Magna Graecia a century earlier. This culture 
was in many respects vastly superior to their own, and for this 
reason it exerted a profound influence upon life and thought at 
Rome. Greek manners and customs, Greek modes of education, 
and Greek literature and philosophy became the fashion at Rome, 
so that Roman society seemed in a fair way of becoming Hellen- 
ized. And to a certain degree this did take place. 

But along with the many helpful elements of culture which the 
Romans received from the Hellenic East, they received also germs 



244 THE PUNIC WARS 

of great social and moral evils. The simplicity and frugality of 
the earlier times were replaced by Graeco-Oriental luxury and 
dissoluteness. Evidences of this decline in the moral life of the 
Romans, the presage of the downfall of the Republic, will multiply 
as we advance in our story. 

355. Cato the Censor. — One of the most noted of the Romans 
of this time was Marcus Porcius Cato (232-147 B.C.), surnamed 
the Censor. Cato set his face like a flint against all Greek inno- 
vations, and did everything in his power to keep Greek ideas 
and customs out of Rome. His life and services, especially tho_e 
which he rendered the state as censor, were approved and appre- 
ciated by his fellow-citizens, who set up in his honor a statue with 
this inscription : " This statue was erected to Cato because when 
censor, finding the state of Rome corrupt and degenerate, he, by 
introducing wise regulations and virtuous discipline, restored it." 

V. The Third Punic War (149-146 b.c.) 

356. "Carthage should be destroyed." — The same year that 
Rome destroyed Corinth she also blotted her great rival Carthage 
from the face of the earth. It will be recalled that one of the 
conditions imposed upon the city at the close of the Second Punic 
War was that she should under no circumstances engage in war 
with an ally of Rome (sec. 347). Taking advantage of the help- 
less condition of Carthage, Masinissa, king of Numidia and an 
ally of Rome, began to make depredations upon her territories. 
Carthage appealed to Rome for protection. The envoys sent to 
Africa by the Senate to settle the dispute, unfairly adjudged every 
point in favor of the robber Masinissa. 

Chief of one of the embassies sent out was Marcus Cato the 
Censor. When he saw the prosperity of Carthage, — her immense 
trade, which crowded her harbor with ships, and the country for 
miles back of the city a beautiful landscape of gardens and villas, 
— he was amazed at the growing power and wealth of the city, 
and returned home convinced that the safety of Rome demanded 
the destruction of her rival. All of his addresses after this — no 



ROMAN PERFIDY 245 

matter on what subject — he is said invariably to have closed with 
the declaration, " Moreover, Carthage should be destroyed." 

357. Roman Perfidy. — A pretext for destroying the city was 
not long wanting. In 150 B.C. the Carthaginians, when Masinissa 
made another attack upon their territory, instead of calling upon 
Rome, from which source experience had taught them they could 
hope for neither aid nor justice, gathered an army with the res- 
olution of defending themselves. Their forces, however, were 
defeated by the Numidians and sent beneath the yoke. 

In entering upon this war Carthage had broken the conditions 
of the last treaty. The Carthaginian senate, in great anxiety, 
now sent an embassy to Italy to offer any reparation the Romans 
might demand. They were told that if they would give three 
hundred hostages, children of the noblest Carthaginian families, 
the independence of their city should be respected. They eagerly 
complied with this demand. But no sooner were these hostages 
in the hands of the Romans than the consular armies, thus secured 
against attack, crossed from Sicily into Africa, and disembarked 
at Utica, only ten miles from Carthage. 

The Carthaginians were now commanded to give up all their 
arms. Still hoping to win their enemy to clemency, they com- 
plied with this demand also. Then the consuls made known the 
final decree of the Roman Senate, — "That Carthage must be 
destroyed, but that the inhabitants might build a new city, pro- 
vided it were located ten miles from the coast." 

When this resolution of the Senate was announced to the Cartha- 
ginians and they realized the baseness and perfidy of their enemy, 
a cry of indignation and despair burst from the betrayed city. 

358. The Carthaginians prepare to defend their City. — It was 
resolved to resist to the bitter end the execution of the cruel 
decree. The gates of the city were closed. Men, women, and 
children set to work and labored day and night manufacturing 
arms. The entire city was converted into one great workshop. 
The utensils of the home and the sacred vessels of the temples, 
statues and vases, were melted down for weapons. Material was 
torn from the buildings of the city for the construction of military 



246 THE PUNIC WARS 

engines. The women cut off their hair and braided it into strings 
for the catapults. By such labor and through such sacrifices the 
city was soon put in a state to withstand a siege. 

When the Romans advanced to take possession of the place, 
they were astonished to find the people they had just so treacher- 
ously disarmed, with weapons in their hands, manning the walls 
of their capital and ready to bid them defiance. 

359. The Destruction of Carthage (146 B.C.). — For four years 
the city held out against the Roman army. At length the consul 
Scipio ^Emilianus 7 succeeded in taking it by storm. When resist- 
ance ceased only fifty thousand men, women, and children, out of 
a population of seven hundred thousand, remained to be made 
prisoners. The city was set on fire, and for seventeen days the 
space within the walls was a sea of flames. Every trace of build- 
ing which fire could not destroy was leveled, a plow was driven 
over the site, and a dreadful curse invoked upon any one who 
should dare attempt to rebuild the city. 

Such was the hard fate of Carthage. Polybius, who was an 

eyewitness of the destruction of the city, records that Scipio, as 

he gazed upon the smoldering ruins, seemed to read in them 

the fate of Rome, and, bursting into tears, sadly repeated the 

lines of Homer : 

The day shall be when holy Troy shall fall 
And Priam, lord of spears, and Priam's folk. 8 

The Carthaginian territory in Africa was made into a Roman 
province, with Utica as the leading city ; and by means of traders 
and settlers Roman civilization was spread rapidly throughout the 
regions that lie between the ranges of the Atlas and the sea. 

360. The Capture and Destruction of Numantia (133 B.C.). — It 
is fitting that the same chapter which narrates the blotting out of 
Corinth in Greece and of Carthage in Africa should tell also the 
story of the destruction, at the hands of the Romans, of Numantia 
in Spain. 

7 Grandson by adoption of Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal. After 
his conquest of Carthage he was known as Africamts Minor. 

8 Iliad, vi. 448. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 247 

The Romans had expelled the Carthaginians from the penin- 
sula, but the warlike native tribes — the Celtiberians and Lusi- 
tanians — of the North and the West were ready to dispute 
stubbornly with the newcomers the possession of the soil. The 
war gathered about Numantia, the siege of which was brought to 
a close by Scipio ^milianus, the conqueror of Carthage. Before 
the surrender of the place, almost all the inhabitants had met 
death either in defense of the walls or by deliberate suicide. The 
miserable remnant which the ravages of battle, famine, pestilence, 
and despair had left alive were sold into slavery, and the city was 
leveled to the ground (133 B.C.). 

Though ever since the Second Punic War Spain had been 
regarded as forming a part of the Roman dominions, still now 
for the first time it really became a Roman possession. Roman 
merchants and settlers crowded into the country. As a result of 
this great influx of Italians, the laws, the manners, the customs, 
and the language of the conquerors were introduced everywhere, 
so that the peninsula became in time thoroughly Romanized. 

Selections from the Sources. — Polybius, i. 10-63, f° r an account of 
the First Punic War; iii. 50-57, the crossing of the Alps by Hannibal; 
xxxviii. 3— n, the cause of the fall of Greece; and xxxix. 3-5, the fall of 
Carthage. It should be remembered that Polybius here writes as an eye- 
witness of the scenes that he describes. Plutarch, Life of Fabius Maxi- 
mus and Life of Marcus Cato. 

Secondary Works. — Mommsen, vol. ii, bk. iii, chaps, i-viii. Pelham, 
H. F., Outlines of Roman History, bk. iii, chaps, i-iii. How, and Leigh, 
History of Rome, chaps, xvii-xix and xxv-xxx. Smith, R. B., Carthage 
and the Carthaginians and Rome and Carthage. Arnold, W. T., The 
Roman System of Provincial Administration, chap. i. Arnold, T., History 
of Rome, chaps, xliii— xlvii. These chapters are generally regarded as the best 
account ever written of the Second Punic War. Dodge, T. A., Hannibal. 
Mahan, A. T., The Influence of Sea Power upon History, pp. 14-21. 
Creasy, E. S., Decisive Battles of the World, chap, iv, "The Battle of the 
Metaurus, 207 B.C." Mahaffy, J. P., The Greek World tinder Roman 
Sway, chap. ii. Church, A. J., Story of Carthage ; interesting for younger 
classes. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Struggle between the Greeks and the 
Carthaginians in Sicily. 2. Fabius "the Delayer." 3. The fall of Syra- 
cuse. 4. The destruction of Corinth. 5. Rome and Greek culture. 
6. Cato the Censor. 7. The last days of Carthage. 8. Viriathus. 



; 



i 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 

033-3 1 B - c -) 



361 . Introductory. — We have now traced in broad outlines 
the development of the institutions of republican Rome, and have 
told briefly the story of that wonderful career of conquest which 
made the little Palatine city first the mistress of Latium, then of 
Italy, and finally of the greater part of the Mediterranean world. 
In the present chapter we shall follow the declining fortunes of 
the Republic through the last century of its existence. During 
this time many agencies were at work undermining the institutions 
of the Republic and paving the way for the Empire. What these 
agencies were will best be made apparent by a simple narration of 
the events that crowd this memorable period of Roman history. 

362. The First Servile War in Sicily (134-132 B.C.). — With 
the opening of this period we find a terrible struggle going on in 
Sicily between masters and slaves, — what is known as the First 
Servile War. The condition of affairs in that island was the out- 
growth of the Roman system of slavery. 

The captives that the Romans took in war they usually sold 
into servitude. The great number furnished by their numerous 
conquests had caused slaves to become a drug in the slave markets 
of the Mediterranean world. They were so cheap that masters 
found it more profitable to wear their slaves out by a few years of 
unmercifully hard labor and then to buy others than to preserve 
their lives for a longer period by more humane treatment. In 
case of sickness they were often left to die without attention, as 
the expense of nursing exceeded the cost of new purchases. Some 
estates were worked by as many as twenty thousand slaves. That 
each owner might know his own, the poor creatures were branded 
like cattle. What makes all this the more revolting is the fact 
that many of these slaves were in every way the peers of their 

. 248 



THE PUBLIC LANDS 249 

owners, and often were their superiors. The fortunes of war alone 
had made the one servant and the other master. 

The wretched condition of the slaves in Sicily, where the slave 
system exhibited some of its worst features, and the cruelty of 
their masters at last drove them to revolt. The insurrection 
spread throughout the island until two hundred thousand slaves 
were in arms, — if axes, reaping hooks, staves, and roasting spits 
may be called arms. They defeated four Roman armies sent 
against them, and for three years defied the power of Rome. 
Finally, however, in the year 132 B.C., the revolt was crushed, 
and peace was restored to the distracted island. 1 

363. The Public Lands. — In Italy itself affairs were in a 
scarcely less wretched condition than in Sicily. At the bottom 
of a large part of the social and economic troubles here was the 
public land system. By law or custom those portions of the 
public lands which remained unsold or unallotted as homesteads 
were open to any one to till or to pasture. In return for such use 
of the public land the user paid the state usually a fifth or a 
tenth of the yearly produce. Persons who availed themselves of 
this privilege were called possessors or occupiers ; we should call 
them " squatters " or " tenants at will." 

Now it had happened that, in various ways, the greater part 
of these public lands had fallen into the hands of the wealthy. 
They alone had the capital necessary to stock with cattle and 
slaves the new lands, and hence they were the sole occupiers 
of them. The small farmers everywhere, too, were being ruined 
by the unfair competition of slave labor, and their little hold- 
ings were passing by purchase, and often by fraud or barefaced 
robbery, into the hands of the great proprietors. 

There was a law, it is true, which made it illegal for any person 
to occupy more than a prescribed amount of the public lands ; 
but this law had long since become a dead letter. The greater 
part of the lands of Italy, about the beginning of the first century 
B.C., are said to have been held by not more than two thousand 

1 In the year 102 B.C. another insurrection of the slaves broke out in the island, 
which it required three years to quell. 



250 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 

persons. These great landowners found stock raising more profit- 
able than working the soil. Hence Italy had been made into a 
great sheep pasture. The dispossessed peasants, left without home 
or employment, crowded into the cities, congregating especially 
at "Rome, where they lived in vicious indolence. Thus, largely 
through the workings of the public land system, the Roman people 
had become divided into two great classes, — the rich and the 
poor, the possessors and the non-possessors. 

364. The Reforms of the Gracchi. — The most noted champions 
of the cause of the poorer classes against the rich and powerful 
were Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. These reformers are reck- 
oned among the most popular orators that Rome ever produced. 
They eloquently voiced the wrongs of the people. Said Tiberius, 
" You are called ' lords of the earth ' without possessing a single 
clod to call your own." The people made him tribune (134- 
133 B.C.) ; and in that position he secured the passage of a law 
for the redistribution of the public lands, which gave some relief. 

As the end of his term of office drew near, Tiberius stood again 
for the tribunate. 2 The aristocrats combined to defeat him. It 
came to riot and street fighting. The partisans of Tiberius were 
overpowered, and he and three hundred of his followers were 
killed in the Forum and their bodies thrown into the Tiber 
(133 B.C.). This was the first time that the Roman Forum had 
witnessed such a scene of violence and crime. 

Gaius Gracchus now came forward to assume the position made 
vacant by the death of his brother Tiberius. In the year 124 B.C. 
he was elected tribune. Once in the tribuneship, he entered with 
energy upon the work of reform. He won the affection of the 
poor of the city by carrying a law which provided that every 
Roman citizen, on personal application, should be given corn 
from the public granaries at half or less than half the market 
price. Gaius could not have foreseen all the evils to which this 
law was to lead. It led eventually to the free distribution of corn 
to all citizens who made application for it. Very soon a large 

2 This was unconstitutional, for at this time a tribune could not hold his office for 
two consecutive years. 



THE WAR WITH JUGURTHA 25 I 

proportion of the population of Rome was living in vicious indo- 
lence and feeding at the public crib (sec. 466). 

Gaius proposed in the interest of the people other measures 
which were bitterly opposed by the aristocrats, and the two orders 
at last came into collision. Gaius sought death by a friendly 
sword (121 B.C.), and three thousand of his adherents were massa- 
cred. The consul Lucius Opimius had offered for the head of 
Gaius its weight in gold. " This is the first instance in Roman 
history of head money being offered and paid, but it was not the 
last" (Long). 

The common people ever regarded the Gracchi as martyrs, and 
their memory was preserved in later times by statues in the public 
square. To Cornelia, their mother, a monument was erected, 
bearing the simple inscription, "The Mother of the Gracchi." 

365. The War with Jugurtha (1 1 1-106 B.C.). — After the death 
of the Gracchi there seemed no one left to resist the heartless 
oppressions of the aristocratic party. The Gracchan laws respect- 
ing the public lands were annulled or made of no effect. Italy 
fell again into the hands of a few overrich landowners. The 
provinces were plundered by the Roman governors. The votes 
of senators and the decisions of judges, the offices at Rome 
and the places in the provinces, — everything pertaining to the 
government had its price, and was bought and sold like merchan- 
dise. This is well illustrated by affairs in Africa. 

Jugurtha, king of Numidia, had seized all that country, having 
put to death the rightful rulers of different provinces, who had 
been confirmed in their possessions by the Romans at the close of 
the Punic wars. Commissioners sent from Rome to look into the 
matter were bribed by Jugurtha. Even the consul Bestia, who 
had been sent into Africa with an army to punish the insolent 
usurper, sold himself to the robber. An investigation was ordered ; 
but many prominent officials at Rome were implicated in the 
offenses, and the matter was hushed up with money. The venal- 
ity of the Romans disgusted even Jugurtha, who exclaimed, 
" O venal city, thou wouldst sell thyself if thou couldst find a 
purchaser ! " 



252 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 

In the year 106 B.C. the war against Jugurtha was brought to 
a close by Gaius Marius, a man who had risen to the consulship 
from the lowest ranks of the people. Marius celebrated a grand 
triumph at Rome. 

366. Invasion of the Cimbri and Teutons (113-101 b.c). — 
The war was not yet ended in Africa before terrible tidings came 
to Rome from the north. Two mighty nations of " horrible bar- 
barians," three hundred thousand strong in fighting men, coming 
whence no one could tell, had invaded and were now desolating 
the Roman province of Gaul, and might any moment cross the 
Alps and sweep down into Italy. 

The mysterious invaders proved to be two Germanic tribes, the 
Teutons and Cimbri, the vanguard of that great German migra- 
tion which was destined to change the face and history of Europe. 
These intruders were seeking new homes. They carried with 
them in rude wagons all their property, their wives, and their 
children. The Celtic tribes of Gaul were no match for the new- 
comers, and fled before them as they advanced. Several Roman 
armies beyond the Alps were cut to pieces. The terror at Rome 
was only equaled by that occasioned by the invasion of the Gauls 
three centuries before. The Gauls were terrible enough; but 
now the conquerors of the Gauls were coming. 

Marius, the conqueror of Jugurtha, was looked to by all as 
the only man who could save the state in this 'crisis. He was 
reelected to the consulship, and intrusted with the command of 
the armies. The barbarians had divided into two bands. The 
Cimbri were to cross the Eastern Alps and join in the valley of 
the Po the Teutons, who were to force the defiles of the Western 
or Maritime Alps. Marius determined to prevent the union of 
the barbarians and to crush each band separately. 

Anticipating the march of the Teutons, Marius hurried into 
Southern Gaul, and falling upon the barbarians at a favorable 
moment almost annihilated the entire host. 8 He now recrossed 
the Alps and hastened to meet the Cimbri, who were entering the 
northeastern corner of Italy. Uninformed as to the fate of the 

3 In the battle of Aquae Sextiae, fought 102 B.C. 






THE SOCIAL OR MARSIC WAR 253 

Teutons, the Cimbri sent an embassy to Marius to demand that 
they and their kinsmen be given lands in the peninsula. Marius 
sent back in reply, " The Teutons have got all the land they need 
on the other side of the Alps." The devoted Cimbri were soon 
to have all they needed on this side. 

A terrible battle almost immediately followed at Vercellae 
(101 B.C.). More than one hundred thousand of the barbarians 
were killed, and sixty thousand taken prisoners to be sold as 
slaves in the Roman slave markets. Marius was hailed as the 
" Savior of his Country." 

367. The Social or Marsic War (91-89 B.C.). — Scarcely was 
the danger of the barbarian invasion past before Rome was 
threatened by another and greater evil arising within her own 
borders. At this time all the free inhabitants of Italy were 
embraced in three classes, — Roman citizens, Latins, and Italian 
allies. The Roman citizens included the inhabitants of the capi- 
tal, of certain towns called municipia, and of the Roman colonies 
(sec. 324), besides the dwellers on isolated farms and the inhab- 
itants of villages scattered everywhere throughout Italy. The 
Latins comprised the inhabitants of the Latin colonies (sec. 324). 
The Italian allies were those conquered peoples that Rome had 
excluded wholly from the rights of the city. 

The Social or Marsic War (as it is often called on account of 
the prominent part taken in the insurrection by the warlike Mar- 
sians) was a struggle that arose from the demands of the Italian 
allies for the privileges of Roman citizenship. 4 Their demands 
being stubbornly resisted by both the aristocratic and the popular 
party at Rome, they took up arms, resolved upon the establish- 
ment of a rival state. A town called Corfinium, among the 
Apennines, was chosen as the capital of the new republic, and 
its name changed to Italica. Thus in a single day a large part 
of Italy south of the Rubicon was lost to Rome. 

* It should be carefully noted that the opposition to the admission of strangers to 
the rights of the city was no longer based on religious grounds, as was the case in the 
earliest days of patrician Rome (sec. 319). The opposition now arose simply from 
the selfish determination of a privileged class in the Roman state to retain its 
monopoly rights and immunities. 



254 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 

The greatness of the danger aroused all the old Roman courage 
and patriotism. Aristocrats and democrats hushed their quarrels 
and fought bravely side by side for the endangered life of the 
Republic. The war lasted three years, and was finally brought to 
an end rather by prudent concessions on the part of Rome than 
by fighting. In the year 90 B.C., alarmed by signs of disaffection 
in certain of the communities that up to this time had remained 
faithful, Rome granted the franchise of the city to all Italian com- 
munities that had not declared war against her or had already 
laid down their arms. The following year the full rights of the 
city were offered to all Italians who should within two months 
appear before a Roman magistrate and express a wish for the 
franchise. This tardy concession to the just demands of the 
Italians virtually ended the war. 5 

368. Comments on the Political Results of the Social "War. — 
Thus as an outcome of the war practically all the freemen of 
Italy south of the Po were made equal in civil and political rights. 
This was a matter of great significance. " The enrollment of the 
Italians among her own citizens deserves to be regarded," de- 
clares the historian Merivale, " as the greatest stroke of policy in 
the whole history of the Republic." This wholesale enfranchise- 
ment of Latin and Italian allies more than doubled the number 
of Roman citizens. 

This equalization of the different classes of the Italian penin- 
sula was simply a later phase of that movement in early Rome 
which resulted in the equalization of the two orders of the patri- 
cians and plebeians (Chapter XXVII). But the purely political 
results of the earlier and those of the later revolution were very 
different. At the earlier time those who demanded and received 
the franchise were persons living either in Rome or in its imme- 
diate vicinity, and consequently able to exercise the acquired 
right to vote and to hold office. 

But now it was very different. These new-made citizens were 
living in towns and villages or on farms scattered all over Italy, 

5 After the close of the war the rights that had up to this time been enjoyed by 
the Latin towns were conferred upon all the cities between the Po and the Alps. 



POLITICAL RESULTS OF THE SOCIAL WAR 255 

and of course very few of them could ever go to Rome, either to 
participate in the elections there, to vote on proposed legislation, 
or to become candidates for the Roman magistracies. Hence 
the rights they had acquired were, after all, politically barren. 
But no one was to blame for this state of things. Rome had 
simply outgrown her city constitution and her system of primary 
assemblies (sec. 292). She needed for her widening empire a rep- 
resentative system like ours; but representation was a political 
device far away from the thoughts of the men of those times. 

As a result of the impossibility of the Roman citizens outside 
of Rome taking part, as a general thing, in the meetings of the 
popular assemblies at the capital, the offices of the state fell into 
the hands of those actually living in Rome or settled in its imme- 
diate neighborhood. Since the free, or practically free, distribu- 
tion of corn and the public shows were drawing to the capital 
from all quarters crowds of the poor, the idle, and the vicious, 
these assemblies were rapidly becoming simply lapobs controlled 
by noisy demagogues and unscrupulous military leaders aiming 
at the supreme power in the state. 

This situation brought about a serious division in the body of 
Roman citizens. Those of the capital came to regard themselves 
as the real rulers of the empire, as they actually were, and looked 
with disdain upon those living in the other cities and the remoter 
districts of the peninsula. They alone reaped the fruits of the 
conquered world. At the same time the mass of outside passive 
citizens, as we may call them, came to look with jealousy upon 
this body of pampered aristocrats, rich speculators, and ragged, 
dissolute clients and hangers-on at Rome. They became quite 
reconciled to the thought of power passing out of the hands of 
such a crowd and into the hands of a single man. The feelings 
of men everywhere were being prepared for the revolution that 
was to overthrow the Republic and bring in the Empire. 

369. Mithradates the Great establishes an Empire in the Orient. 
— While the Social War was still in progress in Italy a formidable 
enemy of Rome appeared in the East. Mithradates VI, surnamed 
the Great, king of Pontus (sec. 229, n. 2), taking advantage of the 




256 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 

distracted condition of the Republic, had encroached upon the 
Roman possessions in Asia Minor, and had caused a general 
massacre of the Italian traders and residents in that country. 
The number of victims of this wholesale slaughter is believed to 
have been at least eighty thousand. 

Mithradates now turned his attention to Europe and sent his 
army into Greece. Athens and most of the other Greek cities 
renounced the authority of Rome and 
hailed Mithradates as the protector of 
Hellenism against the barbarian Romans. 
370. Marius and Sulla contend for the 
Command in the War against Mithra- 
dates. — The Roman Senate now be- 
stirred itself. An army was raised for 
the recovery of the Orient. Straightway 

_ a contest arose between Marius and Sulla 

Fig. 84. — Mithradates 

the Great ^ or tne command of the forces. The 

Senate conferred this upon Sulla, who at 
that time was consul. Marius was furious. By violent means he 
succeeded in carrying a measure in an assembly of the people 
whereby the command was taken away from Sulla and given to 
him. Sulla now saw that the sword must settle the dispute. He 
marched at the head of his legions upon Rome, entered the gates, 
and "for the first time in the annals of the city a Roman army 
encamped within the walls." The party of Marius was defeated, 
and he and ten of his companions were proscribed. Sulla soon 
embarked with the legions to meet Mithradates in the East 
(88 B.C.). 

1 371. Marius massacres the Aristocrats (87 B.C.). — Leaving 
Sulla to carry on the Mithradatic war, 6 we must first follow the 
fortunes of the proscribed Marius. Returning from Africa, whither 
he had fled, Marius joined the consul Cinna in an attempt to 
crush by force the senatorial party. Rome was cut off from her 
food supplies and starved into submission. 

6 This "wa'si' \frhat is known as the First Mithradatic War (88-84 B.C.). 



THE PROSCRIPTIONS OF SULLA 257 

Marius now took a terrible revenge upon his enemies. The 
consul Gnseus Octavius, who represented the aristocrats, was 
assassinated, and his head set up in front of the Rostra. Never 
before had such a thing been seen at Rome, — ■ a consul's head 
exposed to the public gaze. For five days and nights a merciless 
slaughter was kept up. The life of every man in the capital was 
in the hands of the revengeful Marius. As a fitting sequel to all 
this violence, Marius and Cinna were, in an entirely illegal way, 
declared consuls. Marius was now consul for the seventh time. 
He enjoyed his seventh consulship only thirteen days, being car- 
ried away by death in the seventy-first year of his age (86 B.C.). 

372. The Proscriptions of Sulla (82 B.C.). — With the Mithra- 
datic war ended, Sulla wrote to the Senate, saying that he was now 
coming to take vengeance upon the Marian party, — his own and 
the Republic's foes. The terror and consternation produced at 
Rome by this letter were increased by the accidental burning of 
the Capitol. The Sibylline Books, which held the secrets of the 
fate of Rome, were consumed. This accident awakened the most 
gloomy apprehensions. Such an event, it was believed, could only 
foreshadow the most direful calamities to the state. 

The returning army from the East landed in Italy (83 B.C.). 
After much hard fighting Sulla entered Rome with all the powers 
of a dictator. The leaders of the Marian party were proscribed, 
rewards were offered for their heads, and their property was 
confiscated. Sulla was implored to make out a list of those he 
designed to put to death, that those he intended to spare might 
be relieved of the terrible suspense in which all were now held. 
He made out a list of eighty, which was attached to the Rostra. 
The people murmured at the length of the roll. In a few days 
it was extended to over three hundred, and then grew rapidly 
until it included the names of thousands of the best citizens of 
Italy. Hundreds were murdered simply because some favorites 
of Sulla coveted their estates. A wealthy noble, coming into the 
Forum and reading his own name in the list of the proscribed, 
exclaimed, "Alas ! my villa has proved my ruin." Julius Caesar, 
at this time a mere boy of eighteen, was proscribed on account of 



258 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 

his relationship to Marius, but, upon the intercession of friends, 
Sulla spared him ; as he did so, however, he said warningly, 
" There is in that boy many a Marius." 

The number of victims of these proscriptions has been handed 
down as forty-seven hundred. Almost all of these must have been 
men of wealth or of special distinction on account of their activity 
in public affairs. The property of the proscribed was confiscated 
and sold at public auction, or virtually given away by Sulla to 
his favorites. The bases of some of the most colossal fortunes 
that we hear of a little after this were laid during these times of 
proscription and robbery. 

This reign of terror bequeathed to later times a terrible "legacy 
of hatred and fear." Its awful scenes haunted the Romans for 
generations, and at every crisis in the affairs of the common- 
wealth the public mind was thrown into a state of painful appre- 
hension lest there should be a repetition of these frightful days 
of Sulla. 

373. Sulla made Dictator, with Power to remodel the Constitu- 
tion (82 B.C.). — The Senate now passed a decree which approved 
and confirmed all that Sulla had done, and made him dictator 
during his own good pleasure. This was the first time a dictator 
had been appointed since the war with Hannibal, and the first 
time the dictatorial authority had ever been conferred for a longer 
period than six months. The decree further invested Sulla with 
authority to make laws and to remodel the constitution in any 
way that might seem to him necessary and best. The power here 
given Sulla was like that with which the decemvirs had been 
clothed nearly four centuries before this time (sec. 309). 

The reforms of Sulla had for their chief aim the restoration of 
the authority of the Senate, which recent revolutions had reduced 
almost to a nullity, and the lessening of the power of the tribunate. 

374. The Death of Sulla; Result of his Rule. — After having 
exercised the unlimited power of his office for three years, Sulla, 
to the surprise of everybody, suddenly resigned the dictatorship 
and went into retirement. He died the year following his abdica- 
tion (78 B.C.). One important result of the reign of Sulla as an 



SPARTACUS; WAR OF THE GLADIATORS 259 

absolute dictator was the accustoming of the people to the idea 
of the rule of a single man. His short dictatorship was the pre- 
lude to the reign of the permanent imperator. 

The parts of the old actors in the drama were now all played 
to the end. But the plot deepens, and new men appear upon 
the stage to carry on the new, which are really the old, parts. 

375. Spartacus; War of the Gladiators (73-71 B.C.). — About 
a decade after the proscriptions of Sulla, Italy was the scene of 
fresh troubles. Gladiatorial combats had become at this time the 
favorite sport of the amphitheater. At Capua was a sort of train- 
ing school from which skilled fighters were hired out for public or 
private entertainments. In this seminary was a Thracian slave, 
known by the name of Spartacus, who incited his companions to 
revolt. The insurgents fled to the crater of Vesuvius and made 
that their stronghold. There they were joined by gladiators from 
other schools, and by slaves and discontented persons from every 
quarter. Their number at length increased to a hundred and 
fifty thousand men. For three years they defied the power of 
Rome, and even gained control of the larger part of Southern 
Italy. But at length Spartacus himself was killed and the insur- 
rection crushed. 

376. The Abuses and the Prosecution of Verres (70 B.C.). — 
Terrible as was the state of society in Italy, still worse was the 
condition of affairs outside the peninsula. At first the rule of the 
Roman governors in the provinces, though severe, was honest 
and prudent. But during the period of profligacy and corrup- 
tion upon which we have now entered, the administration of 
these foreign possessions had become shamefully dishonest and 
incredibly cruel and rapacious. The prosecution of Verres, the 
propraetor of Sicily, exposed the scandalous rule of the oligarchy, 
into whose hands the government had fallen. For three years 
Verres plundered and ravaged that island with impunity. He 
sold all the offices and all his decisions as judge. He demanded 
of the farmers the greater part of their crops, which he sold to 
swell his already enormous fortune. Agriculture was thus ruined 
and the farms were abandoned. Verres had a taste for art, and 



260 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 

when on his tours through the island confiscated gems, vases, 
statues, paintings, and other things which struck his fancy, 
whether in temples or in private dwellings. 

Verres could not be called to account while in office (sec. 305) ; 
and it was doubtful whether, after the end of his term, he could 
be convicted, so corrupt and venal had become the Senate, the 
body by which all such offenders were tried. Indeed, Verres 
himself openly boasted that he intended two thirds of his gains 
for his judges and lawyers ; the remaining one third would satisfy 
himself. 

At length, after Sicily had come to look as though it had been 
ravaged by barbarian conquerors, the infamous robber was im- 
peached. The prosecutor was Marcus Tullius Cicero, the brilliant 
orator, who was at this time just rising into prominence at Rome. 
The storm of indignation raised by the developments of the trial 
caused Verres to flee into exile to Massilia, whither he took with 
him much of his ill-gotten wealth. 

377. Growth of Piracy in the Mediterranean ; War with the 
Pirates (78-66 B.C.). — Another most shameful commentary on 
the utter incapacity of the government of the aristocrats was the 
growth of piracy in the Mediterranean waters during their rule. 
It is true that this was an evil which had been growing for a long 
time. The Romans through their conquest of the countries fring- 
ing the Mediterranean had destroyed not only the governments 
that had maintained order on the land, but at the same time had 
destroyed the fleets, as in the case of Carthage, which, since the 
days when the rising Greek cities suppressed piracy in the ^Egean 
Sea, had policed the Mediterranean and kept its ship routes clear 
of corsairs. In the more vigorous days of the Republic the sea 
had been well watched by Roman fleets, but after the close of 
the wars with Carthage the Romans had allowed their war navy 
to fall into decay. 

The Mediterranean, thus left practically without patrol, was 
swarming with pirates ; for the Roman conquests in Africa, Spain, 
and especially in Greece and Asia Minor, had caused thousands 
of adventurous spirits in those maritime countries to take to their 



PIRACY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



261 



ships and seek a livelihood by preying upon the commerce of the 
seas. These pirates had banded themselves together in a sort of 
government and state. They had as places of refuge numerous 
strong fortresses — four hundred, it is said — among the inacces- 
sible mountains of the coast lands they frequented. They had a 
fleet of a thousand sails, with dockyards and naval arsenals. 

The history of this pirate state is as interesting as a pirate's 
tale. Its swift ships, sailing in fleets and squadrons, scoured the 
waters of the Mediterranean, so that no merchantman could 
spread her sails in safety. Nor were these buccaneers content 
with what spoils the sea might yield them ; like the Vikings of 
the Northern seas in later times, they made descents upon every 
coast, plundered villas and towns, and sweeping off the inhab- 
itants sold them openly as slaves in the slave markets of the 
East. The pirates even ravaged the shores of Italy itself. They car- 
ried off merchants and travelers from the 
Appian Way and held them for ransom. 
At last they began to intercept the grain 
ships of Sicily and Africa and thereby 
threatened Rome with starvation. Corn 
rose to famine prices. 

The Romans now bestirred themselves. 
In the year 67 B.C. Gnseus Pompey, a 
rising young general of the aristocrats, 
was invested with dictatorial power for 
three years over the Mediterranean and 
all its coasts for fifty miles inland. He 
quickly swept the pirates from the sea, 
captured their strongholds in Cilicia, and 
settled the twenty thousand prisoners that 

fell into his hands in colonies in Asia Minor and Greece. His 
vigorous and successful conduct of this campaign against the 
pirates gained him great honor and reputation. 

378. Pompey in the East; the Death of Mithradates (63 B.C.). 
— Pompey had not yet ended the war with the pirates before he 
was given, by a vote of the people, charge of the war against 




Fig. 85. — Pompey 

the Great 

(Spada Palace, Rome) 



262 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 

Mithradates, 7 who now for several years had been in arms against 
Rome. In a great battle in Lesser Armenia Pompey almost 
annihilated the army of Mithradates. The king fled from the 
field, and soon afterwards, to avoid falling into the hands of the 
Romans, took his own life 8 (63 B.C.). His death removed one of 
the most formidable enemies that Rome had ever encountered. 
Hamilcar, Hannibal, and Mithradates were the three great names 
that the Romans always pronounced with respect and dread. 

Pompey now turned south and conquered Syria, Phoenicia, 
and Ccele-Syria, which countries he erected into a Roman prov- 
ince under the name of Syria (64 B.C.). Still pushing southward, 
the conqueror entered Palestine, and after a short siege of Jerusa- 
lem, by taking advantage of the scruples of the Jews in regard to 
fighting on the Sabbath day, captured the city (63 B.C.). 

379. The Conspiracy of Catiline (64-62 B.C.). — While the 
legions were absent from Italy with Pompey in the East a most 
daring conspiracy against the government was formed at Rome. 
Catiline, a ruined spendthrift, had gathered a large company of 
profligate young nobles, weighed down with debts and desperate 
like himself, and had deliberately planned to murder the consuls 
and the chief men of the state and to plunder and burn the 
capital. The proscriptions of Sulla were to be renewed and all 
debts were to be canceled. 

Fortunately, all the plans of the conspirators were revealed to 
the consul Cicero, the great orator. The Senate immediately 
clothed the consuls with dictatorial power with the usual formula 
that they " should take care that the Republic received no harm." 
Then in the Senate chamber, with Catiline himself present, Cicero 
exposed the whole conspiracy in a famous philippic, known as 
The First Oration against Catiline. The senators shrank from 
the conspirator and left the seats about him empty. After a 
feeble effort to reply to Cicero, overwhelmed by a sense of his 

7 The so-called Third Mithradatic War (74-64 B.C.). What is known as the 
Second Mithradatic War (83-82 B.C.) was a short conflict that arose just after the 
close of the First (sec. 371, n. 6). The chief conduct of the present war had been in 
the hands of Lucius L. Lucullus. 

8 Some authorities, however, say that he was murdered by his son. 



C^SAR, CRASSUS, AND POMPEY 263 

*uilt, and the cries of "traitor" and "parricide" from the 
senators, Catiline fled from the chamber and hurried out of the 
city to the camp of his followers in Etruria. In a desperate 
battle fought near Pistoria he was slain with many of his followers 
(62 B.C.). His head was borne as a trophy to Rome. 

380. Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey: the so-called First Trium- 
virate (60 B.C.). — Although the conspiracy of Catiline had 
failed, still it was very easy to foresee that the days of liberty at 
Rome were over. From this time forward the government was 
practically in the hands of ambitious leaders or of corrupt com- 
binations and " rings." Events gather about a few great "names, 
and the annals of the Republic become biographical rather than 
historical. 

There were now in the state three men — Caesar, Crassus, and 
Pompey — who were destined to shape affairs. Gaius Julius 
Caesar was born in the year 100 B.C. Although descended from 
an old patrician family, still he had identified himself with the 
democratic party. In every way he courted popular favor. He 
lavished enormous sums upon public games and tables. His 
debts are said to have amounted to 25,000,000 sesterces (about 
$1,250,000). His popularity was unbounded. A successful cam- 
paign in Spain had already made known to himself, as well as to 
others, his genius as a commander. 

Marcus Licinius Crassus belonged to the senatorial or aristo- 
cratic party. He owed his influence to his enormous wealth, 
being one of the richest men in the Roman world. His property 
was estimated at 7100 talents (about $8,875,000). 

With Gnseus Pompey and his achievements we are already 
familiar. His influence throughout the Roman world was great ; 
for in settling the countries he subdued he had filled the offices 
with his friends and adherents. This patronage had secured for 
him incalculable authority in the provinces. 

What is commonly known as the First Triumvirate rested on 
the genius of Caesar, the wealth of Crassus, and the reputation of 
Pompey. It was a private arrangement entered into by these 
three men for the purpose of securing to themselves the control 



264 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 

of public affairs. Csesar was the manager of the " ring." Through 
the aid of his colleagues he secured the consulship. 

381. Caesar's Conquest of Gaul (58-51 B.C.). — At the end of 
his consulship Caesar had assigned him, as proconsul, the prov- 
inces of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul, together with Illyri- 
cum. Already doubtless he was revolving in his mind plans for 
seizing supreme power. Beyond the Alps the Gallic and German 
tribes were in restless movement. He saw there a grand field for 
military exploits, which should gain for him such prestige as in 
other fields had been won and was now enjoyed by Pompey. 
With this achieved, and with a veteran army devoted to his 
interests, he might hope easily to attain that position at the head 
of affairs towards which his ambition was urging him. 

In the spring of 58 B.C. alarming intelligence from beyond the 
Alps-caused Caesar to hasten from Rome into Transalpine Gaul. 
Now began a series of eight brilliant campaigns directed against 
the various tribes of Gaul, Germany, and Britain. In his admi- 
rable Commentaries Caesar himself has left us a faithful and 
graphic account of all the memorable marches, battles, and sieges 
that filled the years between 58 and 51 B.C. 

The year 55 B.C. marked two notable achievements. Early in 
the spring of this year Caesar constructed- a bridge across the 
Rhine and led his legions against the Germans in their native 
woods and swamps. In the autumn of the same year he crossed 
the channel that separates the mainland from Britain, and after 
maintaining a foothold upon that island for two weeks withdrew 
his legions into Gaul for the winter. The following season he 
made another invasion of Britain, but, after some encounters with 
the fierce barbarians, recrossed to the mainland without having 
established any permanent garrisons in the island. Almost one 
hundred years passed away before the natives of Britain were 
again molested by the Romans (sec. 402). 

Great enthusiasm was aroused at Rome by Caesar's victories 
over the Gauls. "Let the Alps sink," exclaimed Cicero; "the 
gods raised them to shelter Italy from the barbarians ; they are 
now no longer needed." 



RESULTS OF THE GALLIC WARS 265 

382. Results of the Gallic Wars. — One good result of the 
Gallic wars of Caesar was the Romanizing of Gaul. The country 
was opened to Roman traders and settlers, who carried with them 
the language, customs, and arts of Italy. This Romanization of 
Gaul meant the adding of another to the number of Latin nations 
that were to arise from the break-up of the Roman Empire. There 
can be little doubt that if Caesar had not conquered Gaul it would 
have been overrun by the Germans, and would ultimately have 
become simply an extension of Germany. There would then have 
been no great Latin nation north of the Alps and the Pyrenees. 
It is difficult to imagine what European history' would be like if 
the French nation, with its semi-Italian temperament, instincts, 
and traditions, had never come into existence. 

Another result of Caesar's campaigns in Gaul was the checking 
of the migratory movements of the German tribes, which gave 
Graeco-Roman civilization time to become thoroughly -rooted not 
only in Gaul but also in Spain and other lands. 

383. Rivalry between Caesar and Pompey; Caesar crosses the 
Rubicon (49 B.C.). — While Caesar was in Gaul Crassus was lead- 
ing an army against the Parthians in the East, hoping to rival 
there the brilliant conquests of Caesar. But his army was almost 
annihilated by the enemy, and he himself was slain (54 B.C.). 

The world now belonged to Caesar and Pompey. A struggle 
between them was inevitable. While Caesar was carrying on his 
campaigns in Gaul, Pompey was at Rome watching jealously the 
growing reputation of his rival. He strove by a princely liberality 
to win the affections of the common people. On the Field of 
Mars he erected an immense stone theater with seats for forty 
thousand spectators. He gave magnificent games and set public 
tables, and when the interest of the people in the sports of the 
Circus flagged he entertained them with gladiatorial combats. 

In a similar manner Caesar strengthened himself with the people 
for the struggle which he plainly foresaw. He increased the 
pay of his soldiers, conferred the privileges of Roman citizen- 
ship upon the inhabitants of different cities, and sent to Rome 
enormous sums of gold to be expended in the erection of theaters 



266 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 

and other public structures, and in the celebration of games and 
shows that should rival in magnificence those given by Pompey. 

The Senate, favoring Pompey, made him sole consul for one 
year, which was about the same thing as making him dictator, 
and issued a decree that Caesar should resign his office and 
disband his Gallic legions by a stated day. The crisis had now 
come. Caesar ordered his legions to hasten from Gaul into Italy. 
Without waiting for their arrival, at the head of a small body of 
veterans that he had with him at Ravenna, he crossed the Rubi- 
con, a little stream that marked the boundary of his province. 
This was a declaration of war. As he plunged into the river, he 
exclaimed, " The die is cast ! " 

384. Caesar becomes Master of the "West (49-48 B.C.). — As 
Caesar marched southward, one city after another threw open its 
gates to him ; legion after legion went over to his standard. 
Pompey, with a few legions, fled to Greece. Within sixty days 
Caesar had made himself master of all Italy. His moderation won 
all classes to his side. Many had looked to see the terrible scenes 
of the days of Marius and Sulla reenacted. Caesar, however, soon 
gave assurance that life and property should be held sacred. 

With order restored in Italy, and with Sicily, Sardinia, and 
Spain brought under his authority, Caesar was free to turn his 
forces against Pompey in the East. The armies of the rivals met 
upon the plains of Pharsalus in Thessaly. Pompey's forces were 
cut to pieces. He himself fled from the field and escaped to 
Egypt. Just as he was landing he was assassinated. 

385. A Laconic Message ; End of the Civil War. — Caesar, who 
had followed Pompey to Egypt, was detained there nine months 
in settling a dispute respecting the throne. The kingdom was 
finally secured to the celebrated Cleopatra and a younger brother. 
Intelligence was now brought from Asia Minor that Pharnaces, 
son of Mithradates the Great, was inciting a revolt among the 
peoples of that region. Caesar met the Pontic king at Zela, 
defeated him, and in five days put an end to the war (47 B.C.). 
His laconic message to the Senate announcing his victory is famous. 
It ran thus : "Veni, vidi, via" (I came, I saw, I conquered). 



CAESAR AS AN UNCROWNED KING 267 

Caesar now hurried back to Italy, and thence proceeded to 
Africa, which the friends of the old Republic had made their last 
chief rallying place. At the great battle of Thapsus (46 B.C.) they 
were crushed. Fifty thousand lay dead upon the field. Cato, 9 
who had been the very life and soul of the army, refusing to out- 
live the Republic, took his own life. 

386. Caesar as an Uncrowned King. — Caesar was now virtually 
lord of the Roman world. 10 He refrained from taking the title of 
king, but he assumed the purple robe, the insignia of royalty, and 
caused his effigy to be stamped, after the manner of sovereigns, 
on the public coins. His statue was significantly given a place 
along with those of the seven kings of early Rome. He was invested 
with all the offices and dignities of the state. The Senate made 
him perpetual dictator (44 B.C.), and conferred upon him the 
powers of censor, consul, and tribune, with the titles of Pontifex 
Maximus and Imperator. Thus, though not a king in name, 
Caesar's actual position at the head of the state was that of an 
absolute ruler. 

387. Caesar as a Statesman. — Caesar was great as a general, 
yet greater, if possible, as a statesman. He had great plans 
which embraced the whole world that Rome had conquered. A 
chief aim of his was to establish between the different classes of 
the empire equality of rights, to place Italy and the provinces on 
the same footing, to blend the various races and peoples into a 
real nation, — in a word, to carry to completion that great work 
of making all the world Roman which had been begun in the 
earliest times. To this end he established numerous colonies in 
the provinces and settled in them the poorer citizens of the 
capital. With a liberality that astonished and offended many, he 
admitted to the Senate sons of freedmen, and particularly repre- 
sentative men from among the Gauls, and conferred upon indi- 
vidual provincials, and upon entire classes and communities in 
the provinces, the partial or full rights of the city. His action 

9 This was a grandson of Cato the Censor (sec. 355). 

10 The sons of Pompey — Gnsus and Sextus — had headed a revolt in Spain. 
Cssar crushed the movement a little later in the decisive battle of Munda (45 B.C.). 



268 



LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 



here marks an epoch in the history of Rome. The immunities and 
privileges of the city had never hitherto been conferred, save in 
exceptional cases, upon any peoples other than those of the 
Italian race. Caesar threw the gates of the city wide open to the 
,_ — s-. non-Italian peoples of 

the provinces. Thus 
was foreshadowed the 
day when all freemen 
throughout the whole 
empire should be 
Roman in name and 
privilege 11 (sec. 416). 
As Pontifex Max- 
imus Caesar reformed 
the calendar so as to 
bring the festivals once 
more in their proper 
seasons, and provided 
against further con- 
fusion by making the 
year consist of 365 
days, with an added 
day for every fourth or 
leap year. This is what 
is called the Julian 
Calendar. 12 

Besides these 




Fig. 86. — Julius Caesar 
(Vatican Museum) 



achievements, Csesar projected many other undertakings which 
the abrupt termination of his life prevented his carrying into 
execution. 

11 One of the most important of all Cassar's laws was that known as the Lex Julia 
Municipalis (45 B.C.). All the municipal governments organized after this, whether 
in towns in Italy or in the provinces, conformed to the principles embodied in this 
important constitutional measure. 

12 This calendar was in general use in Europe until the year 1582, when it was 
reformed by Pope Gregory XIII, and became what is known as the Gregorian Cal- 
endar. This in time came in vogue in all Christian countries save Russia, where the 
Julian Calendar is still followed. 



THE DEATH OF C^SAR 269 

388. The Death of Caesar (44 b.c). — Caesar had his bitter per- 
sonal enemies, who never ceased to plot his downfall. There 
were, too, sincere lovers of the old Republic to whom he was the 
destroyer of republican liberties. The impression began to prevail 
that he was aiming to make himself king. A crown was several 
times offered him in public by the consul Mark Antony; but 
seeing the manifest displeasure of the people, he each time 
pushed it aside. Yet there is no doubt that secretly he desired it. 
It was reported that he proposed to rebuild the walls of Troy, the 
fabled cradle of the Roman race, and make that ancient capital 
the seat of the new Roman Empire. Others professed to believe 
that the arts and charms of the Egyptian Cleopatra, who had 
borne him a son at Rome, would entice him to make Alexandria 
the center of the proposed kingdom. So many, out of love for 
Rome and the old Republic, were led to enter into a conspiracy 
against the life of Caesar with those who sought to rid themselves 
of the dictator for other and personal reasons. 

The Ides (the 15 th day) of March, 44 B.C., upon which day 
the Senate convened, witnessed the assassination. Seventy or 
eighty conspirators, headed by Gaius Cassius and Marcus Brutus, 
were concerned in the plot. The soothsayers must have had some 
knowledge of the plans of the conspirators, for they had warned 
Caesar to "beware of the Ides of March." No sooner had he 
entered the hall where the Senate assembled that day, and taken 
his seat, than the conspirators crowded about him as if to present 
a petition. Upon a signal from one of their number their daggers 
were drawn. For a moment Caesar defended himself ; but seeing 
Brutus, upon whom he had lavished gifts and favors, among the 
conspirators, he is said to have exclaimed reproachfully, "Et tu, 
Brute!" (Thou, too, Brutus!), then to have drawn his mantle 
over his face and to have received unresistingly their further 
thrusts. 

The Romans had killed many of their best men and cut short 
their work ; but never had they killed such a man as Caesar. He 
was the greatest man their race had yet produced or was destined 
ever to produce. 



270 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 

Caesar's work was left all incomplete. What lends to it such 
great historical importance is the fact that in his reforms and 
policies Caesar drew the broad lines which his successors followed, 
and indicated the principles on which the government of the 
future must be based. 

389. The Second Triumvirate (43 B.C.) ; the Death of Cicero. — 
Antony, the friend and secretary of Caesar, had gained possession 
of his will and papers, and now, under color of carrying out the 
testament of the dictator according to a decree of the Senate, 
entered upon a course of high-handed usurpation. He was aided 
in his designs by Marcus ^Emilius Lepidus, one of Caesar's old 
lieutenants. Very soon he was exercising all the powers of a real 
dictator. "The tyrant is dead," said Cicero, "but the tyranny 
still lives." 

To what lengths Antony would have gone in his career of 
usurpation it is difficult to say, had he not been opposed at this 
point by Gaius Octavius, the young grand-nephew of Julius Caesar, 
and the one whom he had named in his will as his heir and 
adopted as his son. Upon the Senate declaring in favor of 
Octavius, civil war immediately broke out between him and 
Antony and Lepidus. After several indecisive battles between 
the forces of the rival competitors, Octavius proposed to Antony 
and Lepidus a reconciliation. The outcome of a conference was 
a league known as the Second Triumvirate (43 B.C.). 

The plans of the triumvirs were infamous. They first divided 
the world among themselves : Octavius was to have the govern- 
ment of the West; Antony, that of the East; while to Lepidus 
fell the control of Africa. A general proscription, such as had 
marked the coming to power of Sulla, was then resolved upon. It 
was agreed that each should give up to the assassin such friends 
of his as had incurred the ill-will of either of the other triumvirs. 
Under this arrangement Octavius gave up his friend Cicero, — who 
had incurred the hatred of Antony by opposing his schemes, — and 
allowed his name to be put at the head of the list of the proscribed. 

The friends of the orator urged him to flee the country. " Let 
me die," said he, " in my fatherland, which I have so often saved ! " 



LAST STRUGGLE OF THE REPUBLIC 



271 



His attendants were hurrying him, half unwilling, towards the coast, 
when his pursuers came up and dispatched him in the litter in 
which he was being carried. His head was taken to Rome and 
set up in the Forum. The right hand of the victim — the hand that 
had penned the eloquent orations — was nailed to the Rostra. 

Cicero was but one victim 
among many hundreds. All the s ^^ 

dreadful scenes of the days of 
Sulla were reenacted. Three 
hundred senators and two 
thousand knights were mur- 
dered. The estates of the 
wealthy were confiscated and 
conferred by the triumvirs upon 
their friends and favorites. 

390. Last Struggle of the 
Republic at Philippi (42 B.C.) ; 
the Roman World in the Hands 
of Antony and Octavius. — The 
friends of the old Republic and 
the enemies of the triumvirs 
were meanwhile rallying in the 
East. Brutus and Cassius, who 
had fled from Rome after the 
assassination of Caesar, were the 
animating spirits. Octavius and 
Antony, as soon as they had disposed of their enemies in Italy, 
crossed the Adriatic into Greece to disperse the forces of the 
republicans there. 

At Philippi, in Thrace, the hostile armies met (42 B.C.). The 
new levies of the liberators were cut to pieces, and both Brutus 
and Cassius, believing the cause of the Republic lost, committed 
suicide. It was, indeed, the last effort of the Republic. The 
history of the events that lie between the action at Philippi and 
the establishment of the Empire is simply a record of the struggles 
among the triumvirs for the possession of the prize of supreme 




Fig. 87. — Cicero. (Madrid) 



272 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 

power. Lepidus was at length expelled from the triumvirate, and 
then again the Roman world, as in the times of Caesar and Pom- 
pey, was in the hands of two masters, — Antony in the East and 
Octavius in the West. 

391. Antony and Cleopatra. — After the battle of Philippi 
Antony went into Asia for the purpose of settling the affairs of 
the provinces and vassal states there. He summoned Cleopatra, 
the fair queen of Egypt, to meet him at Tarsus, in Cilicia, there 
to give account to him for the aid she had rendered the liberators. 
She obeyed the summons, relying upon the power of her charms 
to appease the anger of the triumvir. She ascended the Cydnus 
in a gilded barge, with oars of silver and sails of purple silk. 
Antony was completely fascinated, as had been the great Caesar 
before him, by the dazzling beauty of the " Serpent of the Nile." 
Enslaved by her enchantments and charmed by her brilliant wit, 
in the pleasure of her company he forgot all else, — ambition and 
honor and country. 

392. The Battle of Actium (31 B.C.). — Affairs could not long 
continue in their present course. Antony had put away his faith- 
ful wife Octavia for the beautiful Cleopatra. It was whispered at 
Rome, and not without truth, that he proposed to make Alex- 
andria the capital of the Roman world, and announce Caesarion, 
son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, as the heir of the Empire. All 
Rome was stirred. It was evident that a struggle was at hand 
in which the question for decision would be whether the West 
should rule the East, or the East rule the West. All eyes were 
instinctively turned to Octavius as the defender of Italy and the 
supporter of the sovereignty of the Eternal City. 

Both parties made the most gigantic preparations for the 
inevitable conflict. Octavius met the combined fleets of Antony 
and Cleopatra just off the promontory of Actium, on the western 
coast of Greece. While the issue of the battle was yet undecided, 
Cleopatra turned her galley in flight. Antony, as soon as he per- 
ceived the withdrawal of Cleopatra, forgot all else and followed 
in her track with a swift galley. Overtaking the fleeing queen, 
the infatuated man was received aboard her vessel and became 



DEATH OF ANTONY AND OF CLEOPATRA 273 

her partner in the disgraceful flight. The abandoned fleet and 
army surrendered to Octavius. The conqueror was now sole mas- 
ter of the civilized world. From this decisive battle (31 b.c.) are 
usually dated the end of the Republic and the beginning of the 
Empire. 

393. Death of Antony and of Cleopatra; Egypt becomes a 
Roman Province. — Octavius pursued Antony to Egypt, where 
the latter, deserted by his army and informed by a messenger 
from the false queen that she was dead, committed suicide. 

Cleopatra then sought to enslave Octavius with her charms; 
but failing in this, and becoming convinced that he proposed to 
take her to Rome to grace his triumph, she took her own life, 
being in the thirty-eighth year of her age. With the death of 
Cleopatra the noted dynasty of the Ptolemies came to an end. 
Egypt was henceforth a province of the Roman state. 

Selections from the Sources. — Plutarch, Life of Tiberius Gracchtis 
and Life of Julius Ccesar. Appian, The Civil Wars, bk. ii, chap, xviii ; the 
panic in Rome after Caesar's death. Munro, A Source Book of Roman 
History, pp. 99-142 and 217-220. 

Secondary Works. — Merivale, C, The Fall of the Roman Republic. 
Stephenson, A., Public Lands and Agrarian Laws of the Roman Repub- 
lic. Beesly, A. H., The Gracchi, Marius and Sulla. Pelham, H. F., Out- 
lines of Roman History, pp. 201-258 and 333-398. How, W. W., and 
Leigh, H. D., History of Rome, chaps, xxxiii-lii. Gilman, A., Story of Rome, 
chaps, xii and xiii. Abbott, F. F., Roman Political Institutions, chap, vi, 
sees. 85-1 17. Mommsen, vol. iv ; read chap, xi, " The Old Republic and the 
New Monarchy." Oman, C, Seven Ro?nan Statesmen of the Republic, chaps, 
vi-ix. Strachan-Davidson, J. L., Cicero and the Fall of the Roman 
Republic. Trollope, A., The Life of Cicero. Fowler, W. W., Julius 
Ccesar. Church, A. J., Roman Life in the Days of Cicero; for young 
readers. Dodge, T. A., Cwsar. Seeley, J. R., Roman Imperialism, Lect. i, 
"The Great Roman Revolution." Mahaffy, J. P., The Greek World under 
Ro?nan Sway, chap, iv, " The Hellenism of Cicero and his Friends." 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Gaius Gracchus. 2. Tales illustrating 
the wrongs of the Italian allies. 3. Mithradates the Great. 4. Sertorius. 
5. Spartacus and the gladiators. 6. Verres in Sicily. 7. Lucius Licinius 
Lucullus. 8. Mommsen's estimate of Caesar. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE AND THE REIGN OF 
AUGUSTUS CJESAR 

(31 B.C.-A.D. 14) 

394. The Character of the Imperial Government. — The hundred 
years of strife which ended with the battle of Actium left the 
Roman Republic, exhausted and helpless, in the hands of one 
wise enough and strong enough to remold its crumbling fragments 
in such a manner that the state, which seemed ready to fall to 
pieces, might prolong its existence for another five hundred years. 
It was a great work thus to create anew, as it were, out of anarchy 
and chaos, a political fabric that should exhibit such elements 
of perpetuity and strength. "The establishment of the Roman 
Empire," says Merivale, "was, after all, the greatest political 
work that any human being ever wrought. The achievements of 
Alexander, of Caesar, of Charlemagne, of Napoleon are not to be 
compared with it for a moment." 

The government which Octavius established was a- monarchy 
in fact but a republic in form. Mindful of the fate of Julius 
Caesar, Octavius carefully veiled his really absolute power under 
the forms of the old republican state. He did not take the title 
of king. He knew how hateful to the people that name had 
been since the expulsion of the Tarquins, and was mindful how 
many of the best men of Rome, including the great Julius, had 
perished because they gave the people reason to think that they 
were aiming at the regal power. Nor did he take the title of 
dictator, a name that since the time of Sulla had been almost as 
intolerable to the people as that of king. But he adopted the 
title of Imperator, — whence the name Emperor, — a title which, 
although it carried with it the absolute authority of the commander 
of the legions, still had clinging to it no odious memories. He 

274 



CHARACTER OF THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT 275 



also received from the Senate the honorary surname of Augustus, 
a title that hitherto had been sacred to the gods, and hence was 
free from all sinister associations. A monument of this act was 
erected in 
the calendar. 
It was de- 
creed by the 
Senate that the 
sixth month of the 
Roman year should be 
called Augustus (whence our 
August) in commemoration of 
the Imperator, an act in imita- 
tion of that by which the pre- 
ceding month had been given 
the name Julius (whence our 
July) in honor of Julius Caesar. 
And as Octavius was careful 
not to wound the sensibilities of 
the lovers of the old Republic 
by assuming any title that in 
any way suggested regal author- 
ity and prerogative, so was he 
careful not to arouse their op- 
position by abolishing any of 
the republican offices or assem- 
blies. He allowed all the old 
magistracies to exist as hereto- 
fore ; but he himself absorbed 
and exercised the most impor- 
tant part of their powers and 
functions. The consuls and all Fig. 88. — Augustus 

the other republican magistrates (Vatican Museum) 

were elected as usual; but they were virtually only the nominees 
and creatures of the Emperor. They were the effigies and figure- 
heads which deluded the people into believing that the Republic 




276 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE 

still existed. Never did a people seem more content with the 
shadow after the loss of the substance. 

Likewise all the popular assemblies remained and were con- 
vened as usual to hold elections and to vote on measures laid 
before them. But Octavius had the right to summon them, to 
place in nomination persons for the various offices, and to initiate 
legislation. The titular consuls and tribunes also, it is true, had 
this right, but after the new order of things had become firmly 
established they dared not exercise it without the concurrence of 
the new master of the state. 

The Senate still existed, but it was shorn of all real independ- 
ence, since Augustus had been armed with the censorial power 
for the purpose of revising its lists. This power Octavius exer- 
cised by reducing the number of senators, which had been raised 
to one thousand, to six hundred, and by striking from the rolls 
the names of unworthy members and of obstinate republicans. 

We may summarize all these changes by saying that the mon- 
archy abolished five hundred years before this was now rising 
again amidst the old forms of the Republic. 

395. The Government of the Provinces. — The revolution that 
brought in the Empire effected a great improvement in the 
condition of the provincials. The government of all those 
provinces that were in an unsettled state and that needed the 
presence of a large military force Augustus 1 withdrew from the 
Senate and took the management of their affairs in his own 
hands. These were known as the provinces of Cozsar. Instead 
of these countries being ruled by practically irresponsible pro- 
consuls and propraetors, they were henceforth ruled by legates 
of the Emperor, who were removable at his will and answerable 
to him for the faithful and honest discharge of the duties of their 
offices. Salaries were attached to their positions, and thus the 
scandalous abuses which had grown up in connection with the 
earlier system of self-payment through fees, requisitions, and like 
devices were swept away. These provinces were given, as we 
should say, a pure and able civil service. 

1 From this on we shall refer to Octavius by this his honorary surname. 



THET DEFEAT OF VARUS BY THE GERMANS 277 

The more tranquil provinces were still left under the control 
of the Senate, and were known as public provinces. These also 
profited by the change, since the Emperor extended his care and 
watch to them, and, as the judge of last appeal, righted wrongs 
and punished flagrant offenders against right and justice. 

396. The Defeat of Varus by the Germans under Arminius 
(a.d. 9). — The reign of Augustus was marked by one of the most 
terrible disasters that ever befell the Roman legions. The general 
Quintilius Varus had made the mistake of supposing that he could 
rule the freedom-loving Germans, who had in part been brought 
under Roman authority, just as he had governed the servile Asi- 
atics of the Eastern provinces, and had thereby stirred them to 
determined revolt. While the general was leading an army of three 
legions, numbering altogether about twenty thousand men, through 
the almost pathless depths of the Teutoburg Wood, he was sur- 
prised by the barbarians under their brave chieftain Hermann,- — 
called Arminius by the Romans, — and his army destroyed. 

The disaster caused great consternation at Rome. Augustus, 
wearied and worn already with the cares of empire and domestic 
affliction, was inconsolable. He paced his palace in agony, and 
kept exclaiming, " O Varus, Varus ! give me back my legions ! 
give me back my legions ! " 

The victory of Arminius over the Romans was an event of 
great significance in the history of European civilization. The 
Germans were on the point of being completely subjugated and 
put in the way of being Romanized, as the Celts of Gaul had 
already been. Had this occurred, the history of Europe would 
have been changed ; for the Germanic element is the one that has 
given shape and color to the important events of the last fifteen 
hundred years. Among these barbarians, too, were our ancestors. 
Had Rome succeeded in exterminating or enslaving them, Britain, 
as Creasy says, might never have received the name of England, 
and the great English nation might never have had an existence. 

397. Literature and the Arts under Augustus. — The reign 
of Augustus lasted forty-four years, from 31 b.c. to a.d. 14. 
Although the government of Augustus, as we have learned, was 



278 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE 

disturbed by some troubles upon the frontiers, still never before, 
perhaps, had the civilized world enjoyed so long a period of gen- 
eral rest from the turmoil of war. Three times during this auspi- 
cious reign the gates of the temple of Janus at Rome, which were 
open in time of war and closed in time of peace, were shut. Only 
twice before during the existence of the city had they been closed, 
so constantly had the Roman people been engaged in war. 

This long repose from the strife that had filled all the preceding 
centuries was favorable to the upspringing of literature and art. 
Under the patronage of the Emperor and that of his favorite 
minister Maecenas, poets and writers flourished and made this 
the Golden Age of Latin literature. During this reign Vergil com- 
posed his immortal epic of the Alneid, and Horace his famous 
odes, while Livy wrote his inimitable history, and Ovid his fancy- 
inspiring Metamorphoses. Many who lamented the fall of the 
Republic sought solace in the pursuit of letters ; and in this they 
were encouraged by Augustus, as it gave occupation to many rest- 
less spirits that would otherwise have been engaged in political 
intrigues against his government. 

Augustus was also a munificent patron of architecture and art. 
He adorned the capital with many splendid structures, including 
temples, theaters, porticoes, baths, and aqueducts. He said proudly, 
" I found Rome a city of brick; I left it a city of marble." 

398. Social and Religious Life at Rome under Augustus. — A 
striking feature of life at Rome at this time was the growing 
infatuation of the people for the bloody spectacles of the amphi- 
theater (sec. 464). Even the prudent Augustus lavished on these 
shows money without measure or stint. He himself tells us that 
besides a great naval spectacle he gave eight gladiatorial exhibi- 
tions, in which ten thousand men fought on the arena. 

For a long time before the fall of the Republic, the decay of 
religious faith had been going on. Augustus did all in his power 
to arrest the process. He restored the temples that had fallen 
into decay, erected new ones not only at Rome but in every part 
of the Empire, and in every way strove to awaken in the people 
fresh veneration for the ancestral deities of Rome. 



DEATH AND DEIFICATION OF AUGUSTUS 279 

It is preeminently worthy of note that it was in the midst of the 
happy reign of Augustus, when profound peace prevailed through- 
out the civilized world, — the doors of the temple of Janus having 
been closed, — that Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea. The 
event was unheralded at Rome ; yet it was filled with profound 
significance not only for the Roman Empire but for the world. 

399. The Death and Deification of Augustus. — In the year 
a.d. 14 Augustus died, having reached the seventy-sixth year of 
his age. By decree of the Senate divine worship was accorded to 
him and temples were erected in his honor. At first blush this 
worship of the dead Ca?sar seems to us strange and impious. But 
it will not seem so if we put ourselves at the point of view of the 
old Roman. It was the natural and logical outcome of ancestor 
worship, which, as we have learned, was a favorite cult among the 
Romans (sec. 288). The sentiment and belief which prompted 
the offerings of gifts and prayers to the guardian spirits of the 
family would naturally lead to similar offerings to the spirit of 
the departed Caesar, father of the Roman state. 

Selections from the Sources. — Translations and Reprints (University 
of Pennsylvania), vol. v, No. 7, " Monumentum Ancyranum." This forms 
one of the most important of the original sources for the reign of Augustus. 
It is a long bilingual inscription (Latin and Greek) discovered in 1595 on 
the walls of a ruined temple at Ancyra (whence the name), in Asia Minor. 
Munro, A Source Book of Roman History, pp. 143-148, 221, and 222. 

Secondary Works. — Inge, W. R., Society in Rome under the Ccesars, 
chap, i, " Religion." Creasy, E. S., Decisive Battles of the World, chap, v, 
"Victory of Arminius over the Roman Legions under Varus, a.d. 9." 
Capes, W. W., The Early Empire, chap, i, "Augustus." Pelham, H. F., 
Outlines of Roman History, bk. v, chap. iii. Bury, J. B., The Roman 
Empire, pp. 1-149. Allcroft, A. H., and Haydon, J. H., The Early 
Principate, chaps, i-vii. Firth, J. B., Augustus Casar. Merivale, C, 
History of the Romans under the Empire, 7 vols. See vol. iii, chaps, xxx 
and xxxi, and vol. iv. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. In theory the government of the early 
Empire was a diarchy, — that is, a joint rule of the Emperor and the Sen- 
ate. How real was the participation of the Senate in the government ? 
2. Administration of the provinces under the early Empire. 3. The defeat 
of Varus. 4. Life at Rome under Augustus. 5. The cult of the Emperor. 



280 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE 



TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF ROMAN CITIZENS 
AT DIFFERENT PERIODS OF THE REPUBLIC AND 
THE EMPIRE 

These figures embody what is perhaps the most important matter in 
Roman history, namely, the gradual admission of unprivileged commoners 
and of aliens to the full rights of the city until every freeman in the civil- 
ized world had become a citizen of Rome. This movement we have 
endeavored to trace in the text. Consult particularly sees. 301, 303, 307, 

3!7> 3!9. 3 6 7> 3 68 > 3 8 7. 402, and 416. 

Citizens of 
Military Age 
Under the later kings (Mommsen's estimate) . . . 20,000 

338 b.c 165,000 s 

293 " 262,322 

25 1 " 279,797 

220 " 270,213 

204 " 214,000 s 

164 " 327,022 

"5 " "• 394,33 6 

70 " 900,000 (?) 

27 " 4,063,000* 

3 " 4,233,000 

13 A - D 4,937,000 

47 " (under Claudius) 6,944,000 



2 These figures do not include the inhabitants of the Latin colonies nor of the 
allied states. 

3 The falling off from the number of the preceding census of 220 B.C. was a result 
of the Hannibalic War. 

4 These figures and those of the enumerations for 8 B.C. and 13 a.d. are from the 
Monumenttim Ancyranum. The increased number given by the census of 70 B.C. 
over that of 115 b.c registers the result of the admission to the city of the Italians 
at the end of the Social War (sec. 367). 



CHAPTER XXXII 

FROM TIBERIUS TO THE ACCESSION OF DIOCLETIAN 

(a.d. 14-284) 

400. Reign of Tiberius (a.d. 14-37). — Tiberius, the adopted 
stepson of Augustus, became his successor. During the first years 
of his reign he used his practically unrestrained authority with 
moderation, being seemingly desirous of promoting the best inter- 
ests of all classes in his vast empire; and even to the last his 
government of the provinces was just and beneficent. 

But unfortunately Tiberius was of a morose, suspicious, and 
jealous nature, and the opposition which he experienced, in the 
capital caused him, in his contest with his political and personal 
enemies, soon to institute there a most high-handed tyranny. He 
enforced oppressively an old law, known as the Law of Majestas, 
which made it a capital offense for any one to speak a careless 
word, or even to entertain an unfriendly thought, respecting the 
Emperor. Rewards were offered to informers, and hence sprang 
up a class of persons called delators, who acted as spies upon 
society. Often false charges were made to gratify personal enmity ; 
and many, especially of the wealthy class, were accused and put 
to death that their property might be confiscated. 
. Tiberius appointed as his chief minister and as commander of 
the praetorian guard * one Sejanus, a person of the lowest and 
most corrupt life. Then he retired to Capreae, an islet in the 
Bay of Naples, and left to this man the management of affairs 
at the capital. For a time Sejanus ruled at Rome very much 
according to his own will. No man's life was safe. He even grew 
so bold as to plan the assassination of the Emperor himself. His 

1 This was a corps of select soldiers which had been created by Augustus, and 
which was designed as a bodyguard to the Emperor. It numbered about 10,000 men, 
and was given a permanent camp near one of the city gates. It soon became a 
formidable power in the state and made and unmade emperors at will. 

281 



282 FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 

designs, however, became known to Tiberius, and the infamous 
and disloyal minister was arrested and put to death. After the 
execution of his minister Tiberius ruled more despotically than 
before. Many sought refuge from his tyranny in suicide. 

It was in the midst of the reign of Tiberius that, in a remote 
province of the Roman Empire, the Saviour was crucified. Ani- 
mated by an unparalleled missionary spirit, his followers traversed 
the length and breadth of the Empire, preaching everywhere the 
" glad tidings." Men's loss of faith in the gods of the old mythol- 
ogies, the softening and liberalizing influence of Greek culture, 
the unification of the whole civilized world under a single govern- 
ment, the widespread suffering and the inexpressible weariness of 
the oppressed and servile classes, — all these things had prepared 
the soil for the seed of the new doctrines. In less than three 
centuries the pagan Empire had become Christian not only in 
name but also very largely in fact. 

401. Reign of Caligula (a.d. 37-41). — Tiberius was followed 
by Gaius Caesar, better known as Caligula. After a few months 
spent in arduous application to the affairs of the Empire, the 
mind of the young Emperor became unsettled. He soon gave 
himself up to a life of dissipation. The cruel sports of the amphi- 
theater possessed for him a strange fascination. He even entered 
the lists himself and fought as a gladiator upon the arena. After 
four years his insane career was brought to a close by some of the 
officers of the praetorian guard whom he had wantonly insulted. 

402. Reign of Claudius (a.d. 41-54). — Claudius, who suc- 
ceeded Caligula, made his reign a landmark in the constitutional 
history of Rome by the admission of the Gallic nobles to the 
Roman Senate and the magistracies of the city. Tacitus has 
given us a paraphrase of a speech which the Emperor made 
before the Senate in answer to the objections which were urged 
against such a course. The Emperor touched first upon the fact 
that his own most ancient ancestor, although of Sabine origin, 
had been received into the city and made a member of the 
patrician order. This liberal policy of the fathers ought, he 
thought, to be followed by himself in his conduct of public affairs. 



REIGN OF CLAUDIUS 283 

Men of special talent, wherever found, should be transferred to 
Rome. " Nor am I unmindful of the fact," he continued, " that 
. . . from Etruria and Lucania and all Italy persons have been 
received into the Roman Senate. Finally, the city was extended 
to the Alps, so that not single individuals but entire provinces 
and tribes were given the Roman name. Is it a matter of regret 
to us that the Balbi came to us from Spain? that men not less 
distinguished migrated to Rome from Gallia Narbonensis? The 
descendants of these immigrants remain among us, nor do they 
yield to us in their devotion to the fatherland. What other cause 
was there of the downfall of Sparta and of Athens, states once 
powerful in arms, save this, — that they closed their gates against 
the conquered as aliens? " 2 The generous policy here advocated 
by Claudius was acted upon, at least as to a part of the Gallic 
nobility, who were given admission to the Roman Senate. 

In the field of military enterprise the reign of Claudius was 
signalized by the conquest of Britain. Nearly a century had 
passed since the invasion of the island by Julius Caesar. The 
southern part of the island was now subjugated and made into a 
province under the name of Britannia (a.d. 43). Many towns 
soon sprang up here, which in time became important centers of 
Roman trade and culture, and some of which were the beginnings 
of great English towns of to-day. 

Throughout his life Claudius was ruled by intriguing favorites 
and unworthy wives. For his fourth wife he married the " wicked 
Agrippina," who secured his death by means of a dish of poisoned 
mushrooms, in order to make place for the succession of her son 
Nero, then only sixteen years of age. 

403. Reign of Nero (a.d. 54-68). — Nero was fortunate in 
having for his preceptor the great philosopher and moralist 
Seneca (sec. 457) ; but never was teacher more unfortunate in 
his pupil. For five years Nero, under the influence of Seneca 
and Burrhus, the latter the commander of the praetorians, ruled 
with moderation and equity; then he gradually broke away from 

2 Tacitus, Annals, xi. 23. Compare these sentiments of Claudius with those of 
Titus Manlius (sec. 319). 



284 FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 

the guidance of his tutor Seneca, and entered upon a career filled 
with crimes of almost incredible enormity. 

It was in the tenth year of his reign (a.d. 64) that the so-called 
" Great Fire " laid more than half of Rome in ashes. For six 
days and nights the flames surged like a sea through the valleys 
and about the base of the hills covered by the city. It was 
rumored that Nero had ordered the conflagration to be lighted in 
order to clear the ground so that he could rebuild the city on a 
more magnificent plan, and that from the roof of his palace he 
had enjoyed the spectacle and amused himself by singing a poem 
of his own composition entitled the Sack of Troy. To turn 
attention from himself, Nero accused the Christians of having 
conspired to burn the city in order to help out their prophecies. 
The doctrine which was taught by some of the new sect respect- 
ing the second coming of Christ and the destruction of the world 
by fire lent color to the charge. The persecution that followed 
was one of the most cruel recorded in the history of the Church. 
Many victims were covered with pitch and burned at night to 
serve as torches in the imperial gardens. Tradition preserves 
the names of the apostles Peter and Paul as victims of this 
persecution. 

The Emperor was extravagant, and consequently always in 
need of money, which he secured through murders and confisca- 
tions. Among his victims was his old preceptor Seneca, who 
was immensely rich. On the charge of treason, he condemned 
him to death and confiscated his estate. 

At last the Senate, Nero being absent from Rome in the East, 
declared him a public enemy and condemned him to death by 
scourging, to avoid which, aided by a servant, he took his own life. 

Nero was the sixth and last of the Julian line. The family of 
the great Caesar was now extinct ; but the name remained, and 
was adopted by all the succeeding emperors. 

404. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius (a.d. 68-69). — These three 
names are usually grouped together, as their reigns were all short 
and uneventful. The succession, upon the death of Nero and the 
extinction in him of the Julian line, was in dispute, and the 



REIGN OF VESPASIAN 



285 



legions in different quarters supported the claims of their favorite 
leaders. One after another the three aspirants named were killed 
in bloody struggles for the imperial purple. The last, Vitellius, 
was hurled from the throne by the soldiers of Vespasian, the old 
and beloved commander of the legions in Palestine, which were 
at this time engaged in war with the Jews. 

405. Reign of Vespasian (a.d. 69-79). — The accession of 
Flavius Vespasian marks the beginning of a period, embracing 
three reigns, known as the Flavian Age (a.d. 69-96). One of 




Fig. 89. — Triumphal Procession from the Arch of Titus 
(From a photograph) 

Showing the seven-branched candlestick and other trophies from 
the temple at Jerusalem 

the most memorable events of Vespasian's reign was the capture 
and destruction of Jerusalem. After one of the most harassing 
sieges recorded in history, the city was taken by Titus, son of 
Vespasian. The temple was destroyed, and more than a million 
Jews who had crowded into the city are believed in have perished. 
In imitation of Nebuchadnezzar, Titus robbed the temple of its 
sacred utensils and bore them away as trophies. Upon the trium- 
phal arch at Rome that bears his name may be seen at the 



286 FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 

present day the sculptured representation of the seven-branched 
golden candlestick, which was one of the memorials of the war. 
After a most prosperous reign of ten years Vespasian died 
a.d. 79, the first Emperor after Augustus who had not met with 
a violent death. 

406. Reign of Titus (a.d. 79-81). — In a short reign of two 
years Titus won the title of " the Friend and the Delight of 
Mankind." He was unwearied in acts of benevolence and in 
bestowal of favors. 

The reign of Titus was signalized by two great disasters. The 
first was a conflagration at Rome, which was almost as calamitous 
as the Great Fire in the reign of Nero. The second was the 
destruction, by an eruption of Vesuvius, of the Campanian cities 
of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The cities were buried beneath 
showers of cinders, ashes, and streams of volcanic mud. Pliny 
the Elder, the great naturalist, venturing too near the mountain 
to investigate the phenomenon, lost his life. 3 

407. Reign of Domitian (a.d. 81-96). — Titus was followed by 
his brother Domitian, whose rule, after the first few years, was 
one succession of murders and confiscations. This cruel severity 
was the outgrowth of the contest between the Emperor and the 
Senate, which in this reign was renewed with extreme bitterness. 

Under this Emperor took place what is known in Church his- 
tory as " the second persecution of the Christians." The name 
of Domitian's niece Domitilla has been preserved as one of the 
victims of this persecution. This is significant, since it shows 
that the new faith was thus early finding adherents among the 
higher classes, even in the royal household itself. 

Domitian perished in his own palace and by the hands of 
members of his own household. The Senate ordered his infa- 
mous name to be erased from the public monuments. 

3 In the year 1713, sixteen centuries after the destruction of the cities, the ruins 
were discovered by some persons engaged in digging a well, and since then exten- 
sive excavations have been made, which have uncovered a large part of Pompeii and 
revealed to us the streets, homes, theaters, baths, shops, temples, and various monu- 
ments of the ancient city, — all of which presents to us a very vivid picture of Roman 
life during the imperial period eighteen hundred years ago. 



THE FIVE GOOD EMPERORS 



287 



408. The Five Good Emperors; Reign of Nerva (a.d. 96-98). — 
The five emperors — Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Anto- 
nines — who succeeded Domitian were elected by the Senate, 
which during this period assumed something of its former weight 
and influence in the affairs of the Empire. The wise and benefi- 
cent administration of the government by these rulers secured 
for them the enviable distinction of being called " the five good 
emperors." 

Nerva, who was an aged senator and an ex-consul, ruled pater- 
nally. He died after a short reign of sixteen months, and the scepter 




Fig. 90. — Besieging a Dacian City. (From Trajan's Column) 

passed into the hands of the able commander Trajan, whom 
Nerva had previously made his associate in the government. 

409. Reign of Trajan (a.d. 98-117). — Trajan was a native of 
Spain and a soldier by profession and talent. He was the first 
provincial to sit in the seat of the Caesars. From this time for- 
ward provincials were to play a part of ever-increasing importance 
in the affairs of the Empire. 

It was the policy of Augustus — a policy adopted by most of 
his successors — to make the Danube in Europe and the Euphra- 
tes in Asia the limits of the Roman Empire in those respective 
quarters. But Trajan determined to push the frontiers of his 
dominions beyond both these rivers. In the early part of his 
reign he was busied in wars against the Dacians, a people living 



288 FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 

north of the Lower Danube. These troublesome enemies were 
subjugated, and Dacia was made into a province. The modern 
name Rumania is a monument of this Roman conquest and 
colonization beyond the Danube. The Rumanians to-day speak 
a language that in its main elements is largely of Latin origin. 4 

In the latter years of his reign Trajan led his legions to the 
East, crossed the Euphrates, reduced Armenia, and wrested from 
the Parthians most of the lands which once formed the heart of 
the Assyrian monarchy. Out of the territories he had conquered 
Trajan made three new provinces, which bore the ancient names 
of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria. 

To Trajan belongs the distinction of having extended the 
boundaries of the Empire to the most distant points to which 
Roman ambition and prowess were ever able to push them. 

Respecting the rapid spread of Christianity at this time, the 
character of the early professors of the new faith, and the light 
in which they were viewed by the rulers of the Roman world, we 
have very important evidence in a certain letter written by Pliny 
the Younger to the Emperor in regard to the Christians of Pontus, 
in Asia Minor, of which remote province Pliny was governor. 
Pliny speaks of the new creed as a " contagious superstition that 
had seized not cities only but the lesser towns also, and the open 
country." Yet he could find no fault in*the converts to the new 
doctrines. Nevertheless, because the Christians steadily refused 
to sacrifice to the Roman gods, he ordered many to be put to 
death for their "inflexible obstinacy." 

Trajan died a.d. 117, after a reign of nineteen years, one of 
the most prosperous and fortunate that had yet befallen the lot 
of the Roman people. 

410. Reign of Hadrian (a.d. i 17-138). — Hadrian, a kinsman 
of Trajan, succeeded him in the imperial office. He prudently 
abandoned the territory that had been acquired by Trajan be- 
yond the Euphrates, and made that stream once more the east- 
ern boundary of the Empire. 

4 The Romanic-speaking peoples of Rumania and the neighboring regions number 
about ten millions. 



B M 



G 



*»r<H, 



'Split 



dobona 



AV 



/Jarra 



#/ 




C^ 



n i a r Vui i>i J 



vt> 



* 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

AT ITS GREATEST EXTENT 
(Under Trajan, A. D. 9S-117) 

o 190 200 auu -jui) r ->", uoo "1° 



Scale of ADles. 






s» r \ 



I A 



ICiiersi 



-micom' 



eto „$wW 



Ch? 



IDC 



?0* 



M» f <^\ 



CoMnth 



A S 



if A C ^ " 



ffl-HTIIA y 



V 



^k: 



CTPB.B8 



iPeW a 



«L 



K 



Q 



REIGN OF HADRIAN 



289 



More than fifteen years of his reign were spent by Hadrian in 
making tours of inspection through all the different provinces of 
the Empire. He visited Britain, and secured the Roman posses- 
sions there against the Picts and Scots by erecting a continuous 
rampart, known as Hadrian's Wall, across the island from the 
Tyne to the Solway Firth. This wall, in places well preserved, 
can still be traced over the low hills of the English moorlands 
almost from sea to sea. There exists nowhere in the lands that 
once formed the provinces of the empire of Rome any more 
impressive memorial of her world-wide dominion than these 




Fig. 91. — The Hadrian Wall. (From a photograph) 

ramparts, along which for three hundred years and more her 
sentinels kept watch and ward for civilization against the barba- 
rian marauders of Caledonia. 

In the year 132 the Jews in Palestine, who had in a measure 
recovered from the blow Titus had given their nation, broke out 
in desperate revolt, because of the planting of a Roman colony 
upon the almost desolate site of Jerusalem, and the placing of 
the statue of Jupiter in the holy temple. More than half a mil- 
lion of Jews are said to have perished in the hopeless struggle, 
and the most of the survivors were driven into exile, — the last 
dispersion of the race (a.d. 135). 

411. The Antonines (a.d. 138-180). — Aurelius Antoninus, sur- 
named Pius, the adopted son of Hadrian, and his successor, gave 



290 FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 

the Roman Empire an administration singularly pure and parental. 
Throughout his long reign of twenty-three years the Empire was 
in a state of profound peace. The attention of the historian is 
attracted by no striking events, which fact, as many have not 
failed to observe, illustrates admirably the oft-repeated epigram, 
" Happy is that people whose annals are brief." 

Antoninus, early in his reign, had united with himself in the 
government his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, and upon the death 
of the former (a.d. 161) the latter succeeded quietly to his place 
and work. The studious habits of Aurelius won for him the title 
of Philosopher. He belonged to the school of the Stoics, and was 
a most thoughtful writer. His Meditations make the nearest 
approach to the spirit of Christianity of all the writings of pagan 
antiquity. 

Aurelius would have chosen a life passed in quiet and study at 
the capital ; but hostile movements of the Parthians, and espe- 
cially invasions of the barbarians along the Rhenish and Danubian 
frontiers, called him from his books and forced him to spend 
most of the latter years of his reign in the camp. The Parthians, 
who had violated their treaty with Rome, were chastised by the 
lieutenants of the Emperor, and a part of Mesopotamia again fell 
under Roman authority (a.d. 165). 

This war drew after it a series of terrible calamities. The 
returning soldiers brought with them the Asiatic plague, which 
swept off vast numbers, especially in Italy, where entire cities 
and districts were depopulated. In the general distress and panic 
the people were led to believe that it was the new sect of Chris- 
tians that had called down upon the nation the anger of the gods. 
Aurelius permitted a fearful persecution to be instituted against 
them, during which the celebrated Christian fathers, Justin Martyr 
at Rome and the aged Polycarp at Smyrna, suffered death. 

It should be noted that the persecution of the Christians under 
the pagan emperors sprang from political rather than religious 
motives, and that is why we find the names of the best empe- 
rors, as well as those of the worst, in the list of persecutors. It 
was believed that the welfare of the state was bound up with 



THE STATE OF THE PROVINCES 



291 



the careful performance of the rites of the national worship ; and 
hence, while the Roman rulers were usually very tolerant, allow- 
ing all forms of worship among their subjects, still they required 
that men of every faith should at least recognize the Roman 
gods and burn incense before their statues. This the Christians 
steadily refused to do. The neglect of the temple services it was 
believed angered the gods and endangered the safety of the state, 
bringing upon it drought, pestilence, and every disaster. This 
was a main reason of their persecution by the pagan emperors. 

But pestilence and persecution were both forgotten amidst the 
imperative calls for immediate help that now came from the 
North. The barbarians were pushing in the Roman outposts and 
pouring over the frontiers. Aurelius placed himself at the head 
of his legions and hurried beyond the Alps. He checked the 
inroads of the barbarians, but could not subdue them. At last 
his weak body gave way beneath the hardships of his numerous 
campaigns, and he died in his camp at Vindobona (now Vienna) 
in the nineteenth year of his reign (a.d. 180). 

Never was Monarchy so justified of her children as in the lives 
and works of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. As Merivale, 
in dwelling upon their virtues, very justly remarks, " The blame- 
less career of these illustrious princes has furnished the best excuse 
for Csesarism in all after ages." 

412. The State of the Provinces. — The close of the auspicious 
era of the Antonines invites us to cast a glance over the Empire, 
in order that we may note the condition of the population at 
large. As we have already observed, the great revolution which 
brought in the Empire was a revolution which redounded to the 
interests of the provincials. Even under the worst emperors the 
administration of affairs in the provinces was as a rule prudent, 
humane, and just. It is probably true that, embracing in a single 
view all the countries included in the Roman Empire, the second 
century of the Christian era marks the happiest period in their 
history. Without question there is no basis for a comparison, but 
only for a contrast, between the condition of the countries of 
the East and of North Africa under the earlier Roman emperors 



292 



FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 



and the condition of the same lands to-day under their Moham- 
medan rulers. 

The cities of the Eastern countries, as well as hundreds of 
similar communities in Spain, in Gaul, in Britain, and in other 
lands of the West, were enjoying, under the admirable municipal 
system developed by the Romans, a measure of local self-govern- 
ment probably equal to that enjoyed to-day by the municipalities 
of the most advanced of the countries of modern Europe. This 
wise system had preserved or developed the sentiment of local 




Fig. 92. — Roman Aqueduct near Nimes, France 
(Present condition) 

This aqueduct was built by the Emperor Antoninus Pius 

patriotism and civic pride. The cities vied with one another in 
the erection of theaters, amphitheaters, baths, temples, and 
triumphal arches, and in the construction of aqueducts, bridges, 
and other works of a utilitarian nature. In these undertakings 
they were aided not only by liberal contributions made by the 
emperors from the imperial treasury but by the generous gifts 
and bequests of individual citizens. Private munificence of this 
character was as remarkable a feature of this age as is the liber- 
ality of individuals at the present day in the endowment of 



REIGN OF COMMODUS 293 

educational and charitable institutions. As the representative of 
this form of ancient liberality, we have Herodes Atticus (about 
a.d. 104-180), a native of Athens. He was the Andrew Carnegie 
of his time. With a truly royal munificence he built at his own 
expense at Athens a splendid marble stadium large enough to 
hold the entire population of the city. To the city of Troas in 
Asia Minor he made a gift equivalent to over a half million dollars 
to aid the inhabitants in the construction of an aqueduct. 

Scores of majestic ruins scattered throughout the lands once 
forming the provinces of the ancient Empire of Rome bear impres- 
sive testimony not only as to the populousness, culture, and enter- 
prise of the urban communities of the Roman dominions but 
also as to the generally wise, fostering, and beneficent character 
of the earlier imperial rule. 

413. Reign of Commodus (a.d. 180-192). — Commodus, son 
of Marcus Aurelius, was a most unworthy successor of his illus- 
trious father. For three years, however, surrounded by the able 
generals and wise counselors that the prudent administration of 
the preceding emperors had drawn to the head of affairs, Com- 
modus ruled with fairness and lenity, when an unsuccessful con- 
spiracy against his life seemed suddenly to kindle all the slumbering 
passions of a Nero. He secured the favor of the rabble with 
the shows of the amphitheater and purchased the support of the 
praetorians with bribes and flatteries. Thus he was enabled for ten 
years to retain the throne, while perpetrating all manner of cruelties 
and staining the imperial purple with the most detestable crimes. 

Commodus had a passion for gladiatorial combats. Attired in 
a lion's skin and armed with the club of Hercules, he valiantly 
set upon and slew antagonists arrayed to represent mythological 
monsters and armed with great sponges for rocks. The servile 
Senate conferred upon him the title of the Roman Hercules. 
The Empire was finally relieved of the insane tyrant by some 
members of the royal household, who anticipated his designs 
against themselves and put him to death. 

414. "The Barrack Emperors." — For nearly a century after 
the death of Commodus (from a.d. 192 to 284) the emperors 



294 FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 

were elected by the army, and hence the rulers for this period 
have been called " the Barrack Emperors." The character of the 
period is revealed by the fact that of the twenty-five emperors 
who mounted the throne during this time all except four came to 
death by violence. To internal disorders was added the terror 
of barbarian invasions. On every side savage hordes were break- 
ing into the Empire to rob, to murder, and to burn. 

415. The Public Sale of the Empire (a.d. 193). — The begin- 
ning of these troublous times was marked by a shameful proceed- 
ing on the part of the praetorians. These soldiers, having slain 
the successor of Commodus, gave out notice that they would sell 
the Empire to the highest bidder. It was accordingly set up for 
sale at their camp and struck off to Didius Julianus, a wealthy 
senator, who promised twenty-five thousand sesterces to each of 
the twelve thousand soldiers at this time composing the guard. 
So the price of the Empire was three hundred million sesterces 
($12,000,000). 

As soon as the news of the disgraceful transaction reached the 
legions on the frontiers, they rose in indignant revolt. Each 
army proclaimed its favorite commander Emperor. The leader 
of the Danubian troops was Septimius Severus, a man of great 
energy and force of character. He knew that there were other 
competitors for the throne, and that the prize would be his who 
first seized it. Instantly he set his veterans in motion and was 
soon at Rome. The praetorians were no match for the trained 
legionaries of the frontiers, and did not even attempt to defend 
their Emperor, who was taken prisoner and put to death after a 
reign of sixty-five days. As a punishment for the insult they had 
offered to the Roman state the unworthy praetorians were dis- 
banded and banished from the capital, and a new bodyguard of 
fifty thousand legionaries was organized to take their place. 

416. Reign of Caracalla (a.d. 21 1-2 17). — Severus, after a 
prosperous reign, died in Britain, leaving the Empire to his two 
sons, Caracalla and Geta. Caracalla murdered his brother and 
then ordered Papinian, the celebrated jurist, to make a public 
argument in vindication of the fratricide. When that great lawyer 



REIGN OF CARACALLA 



295 



refused, saying that " it was easier to commit such a crime than 
to justify it," he put him to death. Driven by remorse and fear, 
he fled from the capital and wandered about the provinces. At 
Alexandria, on account of some uncomplimentary remarks made 
by the citizens upon his personal appearance, he ordered a 
general massacre of the inhabitants. Finally, after a reign of six 
years, the mon- 
ster was slain 
in Syria. 

Caracalla's 
sole political 
act of real im- 
portance was 
the bestowal of 
citizenship 
upon all the 
free inhabitants 
of the Empire ; 
and this he did, 
not to give them 
a just privilege, 
but that he 

might collect from them certain special taxes which only Roman 
citizens had to pay. Before the reign of Caracalla it was only 
particular classes of the provincials, or the inhabitants of some 
particular city or province, that, as a mark of special favor, had 
from time to time been admitted to the rights of citizenship. 
But by this wholesale act of Caracalla the entire free population 
of the Empire outside of Italy that did not already possess the 
rights of the city was made Roman, at least in name and nominal 
privilege. That vast work of making the whole world Roman, 
the beginnings of which we saw in the dawn of Roman history 
(sec. 301), was now completed. 5 

6 It must not be supposed, however, that the edict of Caracalla did much more 
than register an already accomplished fact. It seems probable that by this time the 
greater part of the freemen of the Empire were already enjoyingthe Roman franchise. 




Fig. 93. — Caracalla. (Museum at Naples) 



296 FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 

417. The Age of the Thirty Tyrants (a.d. 251-268). — For 
about a generation after Caracalla the imperial scepter passed 
rapidly from the hands of one emperor to those of another. 
Then came the so-called Age of the Thirty Tyrants. The throne 
being held by weak emperors, there sprang up in every part of 
the Empire competitors for it, — several rivals frequently appear- 
ing in the field at the same time. The barbarians pressed upon 
all the frontiers and thrust themselves into all the provinces. 
The Empire seemed on the point of falling to pieces. But a 
fortunate succession of five good emperors — Claudius, Aurelian, 
Tacitus, Probus, and Carus (a.d. 268-284) — restored for a time 
the ancient boundaries and again forced together into some sort 
of union the fragments of the shattered state. 

The most noted of the usurpers of authority in the provinces 
during this period of anarchy was Zenobia, the ruler of the cele- 
brated city of Palmyra in the Syrian desert. Boldly assuming the 
title of " Queen of the East," she bade defiance to Rome. The 
Emperor Aurelian led in person an army against her. After a 
long siege Palmyra was taken and, in punishment for a second 
uprising, given to the flames. The ruins of the city are among the 
most interesting remains of Graeco-Roman civilization in the East. 

Selections from the Sources. — Tacitus, Annals, i. 74, the " Informer " 
at Rome ; and his Life of Agricola. Translations and Reprints, vol. iv, 
No. 1, "The Early Christian Persecutions." Munro, A Source Book of 
Roman History, pp. 149-173 and 223-135. 

Secondary Works. — Gibbon, chap, ii, "Of the Union and Internal 
Prosperity of the Roman Empire in the Age of the Antonines." Pelham, 
H. F., Outlines of Roman History, pp. 470-548. Bury, J. B., The Roman 
Empire, chaps, xxv-xxx. Dill, S., Roman Society from Nero to Marcus 
Aurelius ; a notable work. Mau, A., Pompeii: its Life and Art. Watson, 
P. B., Afarcus Aurelius Antoninus, chap, vii, " The Attitude of Aurelius 
towards Christianity." Capes, W. W., The Early Empire, chap, xii, " The 
Position of the Emperor," and chap, xviii, "The Moral Standard of the 
Age." Lanciani, R., Pagan and Christian Rome, chap, vii; for the Cata- 
combs. Mommsen, The Provinces of the Ro7nan Empire from Ccesar to 
Diocletian, 2 vols. WRIGHT, W., An Account of Palmyra and Zenobia. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Persecution of the Christians under 
Nero. 2. Pompeii and what we learn of Roman life from its remains. 
3. Marcus Aurelius ; his Meditations. 4. Zenobia, Queen of the East. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 
DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE THE GREAT 

I. The Reign of Diocletian (a.d. 284-305) 

418. General Statement. — The accession of Diocletian marks 
an important era in the history of the Roman Empire. The two 
matters of chief importance connected with his reign are the 
changes he effected in the government and his persecution of the 
Christians. 

Diocletian's governmental reforms, though radical, were salu- 
tary, and infused such fresh vitality into the frame of the dying 
state as to give it a new lease of life for another term of nearly 
two hundred years. 

419. The Empire becomes an Undisguised Oriental Monarchy. 
— Up to the time we have now reached the really monarchical 
character of the government had been more or less carefully con- 
cealed under the forms and names of the old Republic. Realizing 
that republican government among the Romans had passed away 
forever, and that its forms were now absolutely meaningless, 
Diocletian cast aside all the masks with which Augustus had con- 
cealed his practically unlimited power and which fear or policy 
had led his successors, with greater or less consistency, to retain, 
and let the government stand forth naked in its true character 
as an absolute Asiatic monarchy. In contrasting the policy of 
Augustus with that of Diocletian, Gibbon truly says, " It was the 
aim of the one to disguise, and the object of the other to display, 
the unbounded powers which the emperors possessed over the 
Roman world." 

The change was marked by Diocletian's assumption of the 
titles of Asiatic royalty and his adoption of the court ceremonials 
and etiquette of the East. All who approached him were required 
to prostrate themselves to the ground, a form of Oriental and 

297 



298 DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE THE GREAT 

servile adoration which the free races of the West had hitherto, 
with manly disdain, refused to render to their magistrates and 
rulers. 

420. Changes in the Administrative System. — The century of 
anarchy which preceded the accession of Diocletian, and the 
death by assassination during this period of ten of the twenty-five 
wearers of the imperial purple, 1 had made manifest the need of 
a system which would discourage assassination and provide a 
regular mode of succession to the throne. Diocletian devised 
a system the aim of which was to compass both these ends. First, 
he chose as a colleague a companion ruler, Maximian, who, like 
himself, bore the title of Augustus. Then each of the co- 
emperors associated with himself an assistant, who took the title 
of Caesar and was considered the son and heir of the Emperor. 
There were thus two Augusti and two Caesars. Milan, in Italy, 
became the capital and residence of Maximian, while Nicomedia, 
in Asia Minor, became the seat of the court of Diocletian. The 
Augusti took charge of the countries near their respective capitals, 
while the younger and more active Caesars, Galerius and Constan- 
tius, were assigned the government of the more distant and tur- 
bulent provinces. The vigorous administration of the government 
in every quarter of the Empire was thus secured. 

A most serious drawback to this system was the heavy expense 
involved in the maintenance of four courts with their endless 
retinues of officers and dependents. It was complained that the 
number of those who received the revenues of the state was 
greater than that of those who contributed to them. The burden 
of taxation grew unendurable. The magistrates of the cities and 
towns were made responsible for the payment of the taxes due 
the government from their respective communities, and hence 
officeholding became not an honor to be coveted but a burden 
to be evaded. It was this vicious system of taxation which more 
than any other one cause, after slavery, contributed to the depop- 
ulation, impoverishment, and final downfall of the Empire. 

1 This enumeration does not include the so-called Thirty Tyrants, of whom many 
met death by violence. 



THE ABDICATION OF DIOCLETIAN 299 

421. Persecution of the Christians. — Towards the end of his 

reign Diocletian inaugurated against the Christians a persecution 
which continued long after his abdication, and which was the 
seA^erest, as it was the last, waged against the Church by the 
pagan emperors. The Christians were cast into dungeons, thrown 
to the wild beasts in the amphitheater, burned over a slow fire, 
and put to death by every other mode of torture that ingenious 
cruelty could devise. But nothing could shake their constancy. 
They courted the death that secured them, as they firmly believed, 
immediate entrance upon an existence of unending happiness. 
The exhibition of devotion and steadfastness shown by the 
martyrs won multitudes to the persecuted faith. 

It was during this and the various other persecutions that 
vexed the Church in the second and third ' centuries that the 
Christians sometimes sought refuge in the Catacombs, those vast 
subterranean galleries and chambers 
under the city of Rome. Here they 
buried their dead, and on the walls of 
the chambers sketched rude symbols of 
their hope and faith. It was in the 
darkness of these subterranean abodes 
that Christian art had its beginnings. 

422. The Abdication of Diocletian 

(a.d. 304).— After a prosperous reign FlG " 94--Christ as the 
K r ° J , K , f Good Shepherd 

of twenty years, becoming weary of the (From ^ Catacombs) 

cares of state, Diocletian abdicated the 

throne and forced or induced his colleague Maximian also to lay 

down his authority on the same day. Galerius and Constantius 

were, by this act, advanced to the purple and made Augusti ; and 

two new associates were appointed as Caesars. 

Diocletian retired to his country seat at Salona, on the eastern 

shore of the Adriatic. It is related that, when Maximian wrote 

him urging him to endeavor with him to regain the power they 

had laid aside, he replied, " Were you but to come to Salona and 

see the cabbages which I raise in my garden with my own hands, 

you would no longer talk to me of empire." 





300 DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE THE GREAT 

II. Reign of Constantine the Great (a.d. 306-337) 

423. The Battle of the Milvian Bridge (a.d. 312); "In this Sign 
conquer." — Galerius and Constantius, who became Augusti on 
the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, had reigned together 
only one year when the latter died at York, in Britain. His 
soldiers, disregarding the rule of succession as determined by the 
system of Diocletian, proclaimed his son Constantine Emperor. 
Six competitors for the throne arose in different quarters. For 
eighteen years Constantine fought before he gained 
the supremacy. 

One of the most important of the battles that 
took place between the contending rivals for the 
imperial purple was the battle of the Milvian 
Bridge, about two miles from Rome. Constan- 
tine's standard on this celebrated battlefield was 
the Christian cross. He had been led to adopt this 

F The emblem through the appearance, as once he prayed 

Lab arum to the sun-god, of a cross over the setting sun, 
with this inscription above it : "In this sign con- 
quer." 2 Obedient unto the celestial vision, Constantine had at 
once made the cross his banner, 8 and it was beneath this new 
emblem that his soldiers marched to victory at the battle of the 
Milvian Bridge. 

This act of Constantine constitutes a turning point in the his- 
tory of the Roman Empire, and especially in that of the Christian 
Church. Christianity had come into the world as a religion of 
peace and good will. The Master had commanded his disciples 
to put up the sword, and had forbidden its use by them either in 
the spread or in the defense of the new faith. For three centu- 
ries now his followers had obeyed literally this injunction of the 
Founder of the Church, so that a Quaker, non-military spirit had 
up to this time characterized the new sect. By many of the early 
Christians the profession of arms had been declared to be incom- 
patible with the Christian life. 

2 In hoc signo vinces ; in Greek, kv tovtuj vltca. 

& The new standard was called the Labarum (from the Celtic lavar, command). 



CHRISTIANITY THE RELIGION OF THE COURT 301 

Now in a moment all this was changed. The most sacred 
emblem of the new faith was made a battle standard, and into 
the new religion was infused the military spirit of the imperial 
government that had made that emblem the ensign of the state. 
From the day of the battle at the Milvian Bridge a martial spirit 
has animated the religion of the Prince of Peace. Since then 
Christian warriors have often made the cross their battle standard. 
This infusion into the Church of the military spirit of Rome 



" , ■' .:.: .' :■■■■■ ■"■■■ -•■■■■. ■".' 

'( - ""J 




-"iisr^fc' 



Fig. 96. — Arch of Constantine at Rome, as it appears To-Day 

Erected by the Roman Senate in commemoration of Constantine's victory- 
over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge 



was one of the most important consequences of the espousal of 
the Christian cause by the Emperor Constantine. 

424. Constantine makes Christianity the Religion of the Court. — 
By a decree issued at Milan a.d. 313, the year after the battle 
at the Milvian Bridge, Constantine placed Christianity on an 
equal footing with the other religions of the Empire. The lan- 
guage of this famous edict of toleration, the Magna Carta, as it 
has been called, of the Church, was as follows : " We grant to 
Christians and to all others full liberty of following that religion 
which each may choose." 



302 DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE THE GREAT 

But by subsequent edicts Constantine made Christianity in 
effect the state religion and extended to it a patronage which he 
withheld from the old pagan worship. By the year a.d. 321 he 
had granted the Christian societies the right to receive gifts and 
legacies, and he himself enriched the Church with donations of 
money and grants of land. This marks the beginning of the great 
possessions of the Church, and with these the entrance into it of 
a worldly spirit. From this moment can be traced the decay of 
its primitive simplicity and a decline from its early high moral 
standard. It is these deplorable results of the imperial patronage 
that Dante laments in his well-known lines : 

Ah, Constantine ! of how much ill was mother, 
Not thy conversion, but that marriage dower 
Which the first wealthy Father took from thee! 4 

Another of Constantine's acts touching the new religion is of 
special historical interest and importance. He recognized the 
Christian Sunday, " the day of the sun," as a day of rest, for- 
bidding ordinary work on that day, and ordering that Christian 
soldiers be then permitted to attend the services of their Church. 
This recognition by the civil authority of the Christian Sabbath 
meant much for the slave. Now, for the first time in the history 
of the Aryan peoples, the slave had one day of rest in each 
week. It was a good augury of the happier time coming when 
all the days should be his own. 

425. The Church Council of Nicaea (a.d. 325). — With a view to 
settling the controversy between the Arians and the Athanasians 5 
respecting the nature of Christ, — the former denied his equality 
with God the Father, — Constantine called the first CEcumenical 
or General Council of the Church at Nicsea, a town of Asia 
Minor, a.d. 325. Arianism was denounced, and a formula of 
Christian faith adopted, which is known as the Nicene Creed. 

* Inferno, xix, 115-117. 

5 The Arians were the followers of Arius, a presbyter of Alexander in Egypt ; the 
Athanasians, of Athanasius, archdeacon and later bishop of the same city, and the 
champion of the orthodox or Catholic view of the Trinity. 



CONSTANTINE FOUNDS CONSTANTINOPLE 303 

426. Constantine founds Constantinople, the New Rome, on the 
Bosporus (a.d. 330). — After the recognition of Christianity, the 
most important act of Constantine was the selection of Byzan- 
tium, on the Bosporus, as the new capital of the Empire. One 
reason which led the Emperor to select a new seat for his court 
and government was the ungracious conduct towards him of the 
inhabitants of Rome, because he had abandoned the worship of 
the old national deities. But there were also military reasons, the 
most dangerous enemies of the Empire being now in the East, 
and also social and political reasons, since through the Eastern 
conquests of Rome the center of population, wealth, and culture 
of the Empire had shifted eastward. 

The imperial invitation and the attractions of the court induced 
multitudes to crowd into the new capital, so that almost in a 
day the old Byzantium grew into a great city. In honor of the 
Emperor the name was changed to Constantinople, the " City of 
Constantine." The old Rome on the Tiber, emptied of its leading 
inhabitants, soon sank to the obscure position of a provincial town. 

427. The Reorganization of the Government. — Another of Con- 
stantine's important acts was the reorganization of the govern- 
ment. In this great reform he seems to have followed, in the 
main, the broad lines drawn by Diocletian, so that his work may 
be regarded as a continuation of that of his predecessor. 

To aid in the administration of the government, Constantine 
laid out the Empire into four great divisions called prefectures, 
which were subdivided into thirteen dioceses, and these again 
into one hundred and sixteen provinces. The purpose that Con- 
stantine had in view in laying out the Empire in so many and 
such small provinces was to diminish the power of the provincial 
governors, and thus make it impossible for them to raise success- 
fully the standard of revolt. 

428. The Pagan Restoration under Julian the Apostate (a.d. 361- 
363). — A troubled period of nearly a quarter of a century fol- 
lowed the death of Constantine the Great, and then the impe- 
rial scepter came into the hands of Julian, called the Apostate 
because he abandoned Christianity and labored to restore the 



304 DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE THE GREAT 

pagan worship. In his efforts to restore paganism, however, 
Julian did not resort to the old means of persuasion, — " the sword, 
the fire, the lions." One reason why he did not was because under 
the softening influences of the very faith he sought to extirpate, the 
Roman world had already become imbued with a gentleness and 
humanity that rendered morally impossible the renewal of the 
Neronian and Diocletian persecutions. Julian's chief weapon was 
the pen, for he was a writer and satirist of no mean talent. 

It was in vain that the apostate Emperor labored to uproot the 
new faith ; for the purity of its teachings, the universal and eter- 
nal character of its moral precepts, had given it a name to live. 
Equally in vain were his efforts to restore the worship of the old 
Greek and Roman divinities. Polytheism was a form of religious 
belief which the world had now outgrown ; Great Pan was dead. 

The disabilities under which Julian had placed the Christians 
were removed by his successor Jovian (a.d. 363-364). In the 
army the old pagan standards were replaced by the Labarum, 
and Christianity was again made the religion of the imperial court. 

Selections from the Sources. — Translations and Reprints, vol. iv, No. 1. 
Read "Edicts of Diocletian" and "Edict of Toleration by Galerius." 
Munro, A Source Book of Roman History, pp. 174-176 and 235-237. 

Secondary Works. — Mason, A. J., The Persecution of Diocletian, chap, 
iii, " Motives of the Persecution." Milman, H. H., The History of Chris- 
tianity, vol. ii, bk. ii, chap, ix, " The Persecution under Diocletian " ; and 
bk. iii, chaps, i-iv. Gibbon, chap, xv, "The Progress of the Christian 
Religion and the Sentiments, Numbers, and Condition of the Primitive 
Christians " ; and chap, xvii, on the founding of Constantinople and the 
form of the government. Bury, J. B., History of the Later Roman Empire, 
vol. i, bk. i, chap. iv. Firth, J. B., Constantine the Great. Uhlhorn, G., 
Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism, bk. iii, chap. i. BoiSSIER, G., 
Rome and Po?npeii, chap, iii, " The Catacombs." Stanley, A. P., Lectures 
on the History of the Eastern Church, Lects. ii-v ; for the history of the 
Council of Nicasa, 325 B.C. Seeley, J. R., Roman Lmperialism, Lect. iii, 
" The Later Empire." Lanciani, R., Pagan and Christian Rome, chap. i. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The two types of government, — the 
free popular government of the classical peoples and the absolute mon- 
archy of the Asiatics. 2. The Christian Sabbath. 3. The Council of 
Nicsea. 4. The founding of Constantinople. 5. Julian and the pagan 
restoration. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 
THE LAST CENTURY OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST 

(A.D. 376-476) 

429. Introductory: the Germans and Christianity The two 

most vital elements in the Grgeco- Roman world of the fifth cen- 
tury were the German barbarians and Christianity. They had, 
centuries before this, as we have seen, come into certain relations 
to the Roman government and to Roman life ; but during the 
period lying immediately before us they assumed an altogether 
new historical interest and importance. 

The two main matters, then, which will claim our attention 
during the century yet remaining for our study, will be (1) the 
struggle between the dying Empire and the young German races 
of the North; and (2) the final triumph of Christianity, through 
the aid of the temporal power, over expiring paganism. 

430. The Goths cross the Danube (a.d. 376). — The year 376 
of the Christian era marks an event of the greatest importance in 
the East. The Visigoths (Western Goths) dwelling north of the 
Lower Danube appeared as suppliants in vast multitudes upon its 
banks. They said that a terrible race, whom they were powerless 
to withstand, had invaded their territories and spared neither 
their homes nor their lives. They begged permission of the 
Emperor Valens x to cross the river and settle in Thrace, and 
promised, should this request be granted, ever to remain the 
grateful and firm allies of the Roman state. Their petition was 
granted on condition that they surrender their arms and give up 
their children as hostages. 

The enemy that had so terrified the Visigoths were the Huns, a 
monstrous race of fierce nomadic horsemen from the vast steppes 

1 Valens (a.d. 364-378) was Emperor of the East. Valentinian (a.d. 364-375), 
Emperor of the West, had just died, and been succeeded by Gratian (a.d. 375-383). 

305 



306 LAST CENTURY OF THE EMPIRE 

of Asia. Scarcely had the fugitives been received within the 
limits of the Empire before a large company of their kins- 
men, the Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths), also driven from their 
homes by the same terrible enemy, crowded to the banks of the 
Danube and pleaded that they also might be allowed to place 
the river between themselves and their dreaded foe. But Valens, 
becoming alarmed at the presence of so many barbarians within 
his dominions, refused their request, whereupon they crossed the 
river with arms in their hands. 

Once within the Empire they, joined by their Visigothic kins- 
men, soon began to overrun and ravage the Danubian province's. 
Valens dispatched swift messengers to Gratian, Emperor in the 
West, asking for assistance; but ^without awaiting the arrival of 
the Western legions, he imprudently risked a battle with the bar- 
barians near Adrianople. The Roman army was almost anni- 
hilated and Valens himself was killed (a.d. 378). 

Gratian was hurrying to the help of his colleague Valens when 
news of his death was brought to him. He at once appointed as 
his associate Theodosius (a.d. 379-395), known afterwards as the 
Great, and intrusted him with the government of the East. Theo- 
dosius quickly reduced the Goths to submission. Great multitudes 
of them were settled upon the waste lands of Thrace, while more 
than forty thousand of these warlike barbarians, the destined sub- 
verters of the Empire, were enlisted in the imperial legions. 

431. The Prohibition of the Pagan Cults. — Both Gratian and 
Theodosius were zealous champions of the orthodox Church, and 
a large portion of the edicts issued during their joint reign had 
for aim the uprooting of heresy or the suppression of the pagan 
worship. Speaking generally, from the accession of Constantine 
down to the time which we have now reached, the pagans had 
been allowed full liberty of worship. At first the pagans were 
merely placed under certain disabilities, but finally it was made a 
crime for any one to practice any pagan cult, or even to enter 
a temple. In the year a.d. 392 even the private worship of 
the Lares and Penates was prohibited. The struggle between 
Christianity and heathenism was now virtually ended — and the 



FINAL DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE 307 

" Galilean " had conquered. Pagan rites, however, were prac- 
ticed secretly long after this. Especially did the old home 
cult of the Lares and Penates linger on in the country districts, 
from which circumstance the term pagan (from paganus, the 
dweller in a pagus, or village) came to indicate a follower of the 
ancient idolatry. 

432. Final Division of the Empire (a.d. 395). — The Roman 
world was united practically for the last time under Theodosius 
the Great. From a.d. 392 to 395 he ruled as sole Emperor. Just 
before his death he divided the Empire between his two sons, 
Arcadius and Honorius, assigning the former, who was only 
eighteen years of age, the government of the East, and giving 
the latter, a mere child of eleven, the sovereignty of the West. 
This division was not to affect the unity of the Empire. There 
was to be but one Empire, although there were to be two em- 
perors. But as a matter of fact so different was the course of 
events in the two halves of the old Empire that from this on 
we shall find it convenient to trace the history of each division 
separately. 

433. The Empire in the East. — The story of the fortunes of 
the Empire in the East need not detain us long here. The line 
of Eastern emperors lasted over a thousand years, — until the 
capture of Constantinople by the Turks, a.d. 1453. It will thus 
be seen that the greater part of its history belongs to the mediae- 
val period. Up to the time of the overthrow of the Empire in 
the West the emperors of the East were engaged almost inces- 
santly in suppressing uprisings of their Gothic allies or merce- 
naries, or in repelling invasions of different barbarian tribes. 

434. First Invasion of Italy by Alaric (a.d. 402-403). — Only 
a few years had elapsed after the death of the great Theodosius 
before the barbarians were trooping in vast hordes through all 
parts of the Empire. First, from Thrace and Moesia came the 
Visigoths, led by the great Alaric. They poured through the Pass 
of Thermopylae and devastated almost the entire peninsula of 
Greece; but being driven from that country by Stilicho, the 
renowned Vandal general of Honorius, they crossed the Julian 



308 LAST CENTURY OF THE EMPIRE 

Alps and spread terror throughout Italy. Stilicho followed the 
barbarians cautiously, and, attacking them at a favorable moment, 
inflicted a terrible and double defeat upon them at Pollentia and 
Verona (a.d. 402-403). The captured camp was found filled 
with the spoils of Thebes, Corinth, and Sparta. Gathering the 
remnants of his shattered army, Alaric forced his way with 
difficulty through the defiles of the Alps and escaped. 

435. Last Triumph at Rome (a.d. 404). — A terrible danger 
had been averted. All Italy burst forth in expressions of grati- 
tude and joy. The days of the Cimbri and Teutons were recalled, 
and the name of Stilicho was coupled with that of Marius 
(sec. 366). A magnificent triumph at Rome celebrated the vic- 
tory. It was the last triumph that Rome ever saw. Three hundred 
times — such is asserted to be the number — the Imperial City 
had witnessed the triumphal procession of her victorious generals, 
celebrating conquests in all quarters of the world. 

436. Last Gladiatorial Combat of the Amphitheater.- — The same 
year that marks the last military triumph at Rome signalizes also 
the last gladiatorial combat in the Roman amphitheater. It is to 
Christianity that the credit of the suppression of these inhuman 
exhibitions is entirely, or almost entirely, due. The pagan philos- 
ophers usually regarded them with indifference, often with favor. 
Thus Pliny commends a friend for giving a gladiatorial entertain- 
ment at the funeral of his wife. They were defended on the 
ground that they fostered a martial spirit among the people and 
inured the soldiers to the sights of the battlefield. Hence gladia- 
torial games were sometimes actually exhibited to the legions 
before they set out on their campaigns. 

But the Christian Fathers denounced the combats as immoral, 
and labored in every possible way to create a public opinion against 
them. At length, in a.d. 325, the first imperial edict against them 
was issued by Constantine. From this time forward the exhibi- 
tions were under something of a ban, until their final abolition 
was brought about by an incident of the games that closed the 
triumph of Honorius. In the midst of the exhibition a Christian 
monk, named Telemachus, descending into the arena, rushed 



THE RANSOM OF ROME 309 

between the combatants, but was instantly killed by a shower of 
missiles thrown by the people, who were angered by his interrup- 
tion of their sport. The people, however, soon repented of their 
act ; and Honorius himself, who was present, was moved by the 
scene. Christianity had awakened the conscience and touched 
the heart of Rome. The martyrdom of the monk led to an 
imperial edict " which abolished forever the human sacrifices of 
the amphitheater." 

437. The Ransom of Rome (a.d. 409). — Shortly after the vic- 
tory of Stilicho over the German barbarians, he came under the 
suspicion of the weak and jealous Honorius, and was executed. 
Thus fell the great general whose sword and counsel had twice 
saved Rome from the barbarians, 2 and who might again have 
averted similar dangers that were now at hand. Listening to the 
rash counsel of his unworthy advisers, Honorius provoked to 
revolt the thirty thousand Gothic mercenaries in the Roman 
legions by a massacre of their wives and children, who were held 
as hostages in the different cities of Italy. The Goths beyond the 
Alps joined with their kinsmen to avenge the perfidious act. 
Alaric again crossed the mountains, and led his hosts to the very 
gates of Rome. Not since the time of the dread Hannibal 
(sec. 344) — more than six hundred years before this — had 
Rome been insulted by the presence of a foreign foe beneath her 
walls. 

Famine soon forced the Romans to sue for terms of surrender. 
The ambassadors of the Senate, when they came before Alaric, 
began, in lofty language, to warn him not to render the Romans 
desperate by hard or dishonorable terms : their fury when driven 
to despair, they represented, was terrible, and their number 
enormous. "The thicker the grass, the easier to mow it," was 
Alaric's derisive reply. The barbarian chieftain at length named 
the ransom that he would accept and spare the city. Small as it 
comparatively was, the Romans were able to raise it only by the 

2 Shortly after the Gothic invasion of the year 403, Italy was again invaded by a 
mixed German host led by a chieftain named Radagaisus. At Florence the bar- 
barians were surrounded by the Roman army under Stilicho and forced to surrender. 



310 LAST CENTURY OF THE EMPIRE 

most extraordinary measures. The images of the gods were first 
stripped of their ornaments of gold and precious stones, and 
finally the statues themselves were melted down. 

438. Sack of Rome by Alaric (a.d. 410). — Upon retiring from 
Rome, Alaric established his camp in Etruria. The chieftain now 
demanded for his followers lands of Honorius, who, with his court, 
was safe behind the marshes of Ravenna; but the Emperor 
treated all the proposals of the barbarian with foolish insolence. 

Rome paid the penalty. Alaric turned upon the city, resolved 
upon its sack and plunder. The barbarians broke into the capital 
by night, " and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous 
sound of the Gothic trumpet." Precisely eight hundred years 
had passed since its sack by the Gauls (sec. 316). During that 
time the Imperial City had carried its victorious standards over 
three continents, and had gathered within the temples of its gods 
and the palaces of its nobles the plunder of the world. Now it 
was given over for a spoil to the fierce tribes from beyond the 
Danube. 

Alaric commanded his soldiers to respect the lives of the 
people, and to leave untouched the treasures of the Christian 
churches ; but the wealth of the citizens he permitted them to 
make their own. For six days and nights the rough barbarians 
trooped through the streets of the city on their mission of pillage. 
Their wagons were heaped with the costly furniture, the rich 
plate, and the silken garments stripped from the palace of the 
Csesars and the residences of the wealthy patricians. Amidst the 
license of the sack, the barbarian instincts of the robbers broke 
loose from all restraint, and the streets of the city were wet with 
blood, while the nights were lighted by burning buildings. 

439. Effects of the Disaster upon Paganism. — The over- 
whelming disaster that had befallen the Imperial City produced a 
profound impression upon both pagans and Christians throughout 
the Roman world. The pagans asserted that these unutterable 
calamities had overtaken the Roman people because of their 
abandonment of the worship of the gods of their forefathers, 
under whose protection and favor Rome had become the mistress 
of the world. 



THE DEATH OF ALARIC 311 

The Christians, on the other hand, saw in the fall of the city 
the fulfillment of the prophecies of their Scriptures against the 
Babylon of the Apocalypse. It was this interpretation of the 
appalling calamity that gained credit amidst the panic and 
despair of the times. " Henceforth," says the historian Merivale, 
" the power of paganism was entirely broken, and the indications 
which occasionally meet us of its continued existence are rare 
and trifling. Christianity stepped into its deserted inheritance." 

440. The Death of Alaric (a.d. 410). — After withdrawing his 
warriors from Rome, Alaric led them southward. As they moved 
slowly on, they piled still higher the wagons of their long trains 
with the rich spoils of the cities and villas of Campania and other 
districts of Southern Italy. In the villas of the Roman nobles the 
barbarians spread rare banquets from the stores of their well- filled 
cellars, and drank from jeweled cups the famed Falernian wine. 

Alaric's designs of conquest in Africa were frustrated by his 
death, which occurred a.d. 4 10. With religious care his followers 
secured the body of their hero against molestation. The little 
river Busentinus, in Northern Bruttium, was turned from its 
course with great labor, and in the bed of the stream was con- 
structed a tomb, in which was placed the body of the king, with 
his jewels and trophies. The river was then restored to its old 
channel, and, that the exact spot might never be known, the 
prisoners who had been forced to do the work were all put 
to death. 

441. The Disintegration of the Empire and the Beginnings of the 
Barbarian Kingdoms (a.d. 410-45 i). 3 — We must now turn our 
eyes from Rome and Italy in order to watch the movement of 
events in the western provinces of the Empire. During the forty 
years following the sack of Rome by Alaric, the German tribes 
seized the greater part of these provinces and established in them 
what are known as the " Barbarian Kingdoms." 

The Goths who had pillaged Rome and Italy, after, the death 
of their great chieftain Alaric, under the lead of his successors, 

3 We choose these dates for the reason that they set off the interval between two 
great events, — the sack of Rome by Alaric and the battle of Chalons (sec. 442). 



312 LAST CENTURY OF THE EMPIRE 

recrossed the Alps, and establishing their camps in the south of 
Gaul and the north of Spain, set up finally in those regions what is 
known as the Kingdom of the Visigoths or West Goths (sec. 475). 

While the Goths were making these migrations and settlements, 
a kindred but less civilized tribe, the Vandals, moving from their 
seat in Pannonia, traversed Gaul, crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, 
and there occupied for a time a large tract of country, which 
in its present name of Andalusia preserves the memory of its 
barbarian settlers. Then they crossed the straits of Gibraltar, 
overthrew the Roman authority in all North Africa, and made 
Carthage the seat of a dreaded corsair empire (sec. 477). 

About this same time the Burgundians established themselves 
in Southeastern Gaul. A portion of the region occupied by these 
settlers still retains from them the name of Burgundy. 

Meanwhile the Franks, who about a century before the sack of 
Rome by Alaric had made their first settlement in Roman terri- 
tory west of the Rhine, were increasing in numbers and in author- 
ity, and were laying the basis of what after the fall of Rome was 
to become known as the Kingdom of the Franks, — the beginning 
of the French nation of to-day (sec. 478). 

442. Invasion of the Huns; Battle of Chalons (a.d. 451). — 
The barbarians who were thus overrunning and parceling out the 
inheritance of the dying Empire were now in turn pressed upon 
and terrified by a foe more hideous and dreadful in their eyes 
than they themselves were in the eyes of the Roman provincials. 
These were the non-Aryan Huns, of whom we have already 
caught a glimpse as they drove the panic-stricken Goths across 
the Danube (sec. 430). At this time their leader was Attila, 
whom the affrighted inhabitants of Europe called the " Scourge 
of God." It was Attila's boast that the grass never grew again 
where once the hoof of his horse had trod. 

Attila defeated the armies of the Eastern Emperor and exacted 
tribute from the court of Constantinople. Finally he turned west- 
ward, and, at the head of a host numbering, it is asserted, seven 
hundred thousand warriors, crossed the Rhine into Gaul, pur- 
posing first to ravage that province and then to traverse Italy 



ATTILA THREATENS ROME 313 

with fire and sword, in order to destroy the last vestige of the 
Roman power. The Romans and their German conquerors 
united to make common cause against the common enemy. 
The Visigoths rallied about their king, Theodoric ; the Italians, 
the Franks, the Burgundians flocked to the standard of the 
Roman general Aetius. 4 Attila drew up his mighty hosts upon 
the plain of Chalons, in the north of Gaul, and there awaited 
the onset of the Romans and their allies. The conflict was 
long and terrible, but at last fortune turned against the barba- 
rians, whose losses were enormous. Attila succeeded in escaping 
from the field and retreated with his shattered hosts across the 
Rhine. 

This great victory is placed among the significant events of 
history ; for it decided that the Christian German folk, and not 
the pagan Scythic Huns, should inherit the dominions of the 
expiring Roman Empire and control the destinies of Europe. 

443. Attila threatens Rome ; his death (a.d. 453 ?). — The year 
after his defeat at Chalons, Attila crossed the Alps and burned 
or plundered all the important cities of Northern Italy. The 
Veneti fled for safety to the morasses at the head of the Adriatic 
(a.d. 452). Upon the islets where they built their rude dwellings 
there grew up in time the city of Venice, " the eldest daughter 
of the Roman Empire," the " Carthage of the Middle Ages." 

The barbarians threatened Rome ; but Leo the Great, bishop 
of the capital, went with an embassy to the camp of Attila and 
pleaded for the city. He recalled to the mind of Attila how 
death had overtaken the impious Alaric soon after he had given 
the Imperial City as a spoil to his warriors, and warned him not 
to call down upon himself the like judgment of Heaven. Attila 
was induced to spare the city and to lead his warriors back beyond 
the Alps. Shortly after he had crossed the Danube he died sud- 
denly in his camp, and like Alaric was buried secretly. 

444. Sack of Rome by the Vandals (a.d. 455). — Rome had 
been saved a visitation from the spoiler of the North, but a new 

4 Aetius has been called " the last of the Romans." For twenty years previous 
to this time he had been the upholder of the imperial authority in Gaul. 



314 LAST CENTURY OF THE EMPIRE 

destruction was about to burst upon it by way of the sea from 
the South. Africa sent out another enemy whose greed for plun- 
der proved more fatal to Rome than the eternal hate of Hannibal. 
The kings of the Vandal empire in North Africa had acquired as 
perfect a supremacy in the Western Mediterranean as Carthage 
ever enjoyed in the days of her commercial pride. Vandal cor- 
sairs swept the seas and harassed all the shore lands. In the year 
455 a Vandal fleet led by the dread Geiseric sailed up the Tiber. 

Panic seized the people, for the name Vandal was pronounced 
with terror throughout the world. Again the great Leo, who had 
once before saved his flock from the fury of Attila, went forth 
to intercede in the name of Christ for the Imperial City. Gei- 
seric granted to the pious bishop the lives of the citizens, but 
said that the movable property of the capital belonged to his 
warriors. For fourteen days and nights the city was given over 
to the barbarians. The ships of the Vandals, which almost hid 
with their number the waters of the Tiber, were piled, as had 
been the wagons of the Goths before them, with the rich and 
weighty spoils of the capital. Palaces were stripped of their fur- 
niture, and the walls of the temples denuded of the trophies of a 
hundred Roman victories. 5 From the Capitoline sanctuary were 
borne off the golden candlestick and other sacred things that Titus 
had stolen from the temple at Jerusalem (sec. 405). 

The greed of the barbarians was sated at last, and they were 
ready to withdraw. The Vandal fleet sailed for Carthage, bear- 
ing, besides the plunder of the city, 6 more than thirty thousand 
of the inhabitants as slaves. Carthage, through her own barba- 
rian conquerors, was at last avenged upon her hated rival. The 
mournful presentiment of Scipio had fallen true (sec. 359). The 
cruel fate of Carthage might have been read again in the pillaged 
city that the Vandals left behind them. 

5 It would seem that, in some instances at least, after the closing of the temples 
to the pagan worship, many of the sacred things, such as war trophies, were left 
undisturbed in the edifices where they had been placed during pagan times. 

6 "The golden candlestick reached the African capital, was recovered a^ century 
later, and lodged in Constantinople by Justinian, and by him replaced, from super- 
stitious motives, in Jerusalem. From that time its history is lost." — Merivale. 



END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 315 

445. End of the Roman Empire in the West (a.d. 476). — Only 
the shadow of the Empire in the West now remained. The 
provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Africa were in the hands of the 
Franks, the Vandals, the Goths, and various other intruding 
tribes. Italy, as well as Rome herself, had become again and 
again the spoil of the barbarians. The story of the twenty years 
following the sack of the capital by Geiseric affords only a repe- 
tition of the events we have been narrating. During these years 
several puppet emperors were set up by army leaders. The last 
was a child of only six years. By what has been called a freak of 
fortune this boy-sovereign bore the name of Romulus Augustus, 
thus uniting in the name of the last Roman Emperor of the West 
the names of the founder of Rome and the establisher of the 
Empire. He became known as Augustulus, — " the little Augus- 
tus." He reigned only one year, when Odoacer, the leader of 
the Heruli, a small but formidable German tribe, dethroned the 
child -emperor. 

The Roman Senate now sent to Constantinople an embassy 
with the royal vestments and the insignia of the imperial office to 
represent to the Eastern Emperor Zeno that the West was willing 
to give up its claims to an emperor of its own, and to request 
that the German chief, with the title of "patrician," might rule 
Italy as his viceroy. This was granted; and Italy now became 
in effect a province of the Empire in the East (a.d. 476). 

446. The Import of the Break-up of the Roman Empire in the 
West. — The destruction of the Roman Empire in the West by 
the German barbarians is one of the most momentous events in 
history. It marks a turning point in the fortunes of mankind. 

The revolution brought it about that for a long time the lamp 
of culture burned with lessened light. It brought in the so-called 
" Dark Ages." During this period the new race was slowly lifting 
itself to the level of culture that the Greeks and Romans had 
attained. 

But the revolution meant much besides disaster and loss. It 
meant the enrichment of civilization through the incoming of a 
new and splendidly endowed race. Within the Empire during 



316 LAST CENTURY OF THE EMPIRE 

several centuries three of the most vital elements of civilization, 
the Greek, the Roman, and the Christian, had been gradually 
blending. Now was added a fourth factor, the Germanic. It is 
this element which has had very much to do in making modern 
civilization richer and more progressive than any preceding one. 

The downfall of the Roman imperial government in the West 
was, further, an event of immense significance in the political 
world for the reason that it rendered possible the growth in 
Western Europe of several nations or states in place of the single 
Empire. 

Another consequence of the fall of the Roman power in the 
West was the development of the Papacy. In the absence of an 
emperor in the West the popes rapidly gained influence and 
power, and soon built up an ecclesiastical empire that in some 
respects took the place of the old Empire and carried on its 
civilizing work. 

Selections from the Sources. — Tacitus, Germania; the most valuable 
original account that we possess of the life and manners of our German 
ancestors about the first century of our era. Translations and Reprints, 
vol. vi, No. 3, " The Early Germans." 

Secondary Works. — Hodgkin, T., Italy and her Invaders, vols, i and 
ii ; on the Visigothic, the Hunnish, and the Vandal invasion. Pelham, 
H. F., Outlines of Roman History, pp. 557-572. Dill, S., Roman Society 
in the Last Century of the Western Empire ; a book of unsurpassed value. 
Gibbon, chap, ix, " The State of Germany till the Invasion of the Barbarians 
in the time of the Emperor Decius." Carr, A., The Church and the 
Roman Empire, chap, xiii, "The Fall of Paganism"; and chap, xviii, 
" Alaric and the Goths." KlNGSLEY, C, The Roman and the Teuton, 
Lects. i-iii. Creasy, E. S., Decisive Battles of the World, chap, vi, "The 
Battle of Chalons, A.D. 451." Emerton, E., An Introduction to the Study 
of the Middle Ages, chaps, ii and hi. For the causes of the failure of the 
Empire in the West, see the following : Hodgkin, T., Italy and her 
Invaders, vol. ii, pp. 532-613. Seeley, J. R., Roman Imperialism, Lect. ii ; 
and Bury, J. B., A History of the Later Rom a7t Empire, vol. i, chap. iii. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Manners and customs of the Germans. 
2. Theodosius the Great and Bishop Ambrose. 3. Alaric the Goth. 
4. Attila the Hun. 5. Causes of the downfall of the Empire in the West. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

ARCHITECTURE, LITERATURE, LAW, AND SOCIAL LIFE 
AMONG THE ROMANS 

I. Architecture 

447. Greek Origin of Roman Architecture: the Arch. — The 

architecture of the Romans was, in the main, an imitation of 
Greek models. But the Romans were not mere servile imitators. 
They not only modified the architectural forms they borrowed, 
but they gave their structures a distinct character by the promi- 
nent use of the arch, which the Greek and Oriental builders 
seldom employed, though they were acquainted with its principle. 
By means of it the Roman builders vaulted the roofs of the 
largest buildings, carried stupendous aqueducts across the deepest 
valleys, and spanned the broadest streams with bridges that have 
resisted all the assaults of time and flood to the present day. 

448. Sacred Edifices. — The temples of the Romans were in 
general so like those of the Greeks that we need not here take 
space to enter into a particular description of them. Mention, 
however, should be made of their circular vaulted temples, as 
this was a style of building almost exclusively Italian. The best 
representative of this style of sacred edifices is the Pantheon at 
Rome, which has come down to our own times in a state of won- 
derful preservation. This structure is about one hundred and 
forty feet in diameter. The immense concrete dome which vaults 
the building is one of the boldest pieces of masonry executed by 
the master builders of the world. 

449. Circuses, Theaters, and Amphitheaters. — The circuses of 
the Romans were what we should call race courses. There were 
several at Rome, the most celebrated being the Circus Maximus, 
which was first laid out in the time of the Tarquins and after- 
wards enlarged as the population of the capital increased until it 
was capable of holding two or three hundred thousand spectators. 

3 X 7 




3i8 



AQUEDUCTS 



319 



The Romans borrowed the plan of their theaters from the 
Greeks; their amphitheaters, however, were original with them. 
The Flavian amphitheater, known as the Colosseum, was five hun- 
dred and seventy-four feet in its greatest diameter, and was 
capable of seating over forty thousand spectators. 1 The ruins of 




Fig. 98. — The Colosseum. (From a photograph) 

this immense structure stand to-day as " the embodiment of the 
power and splendor of the Roman Empire." 

450. Aqueducts.— The aqueducts of ancient Rome were among 
the most important of the utilitarian works of the Romans. The 
water system of the capital was commenced by Appius Claudius 
(about 313 B.C.). During the Republic four aqueducts in all were 
completed ; under the emperors the number was increased to 
fourteen. 2 The longest of these was about fifty-five miles in length. 
The aqueducts usually ran beneath the surface, but when a depres- 
sion was to be crossed they were lifted on arches, which some- 
times were over one hundred feet high. 3 These lofty arches 

1 The old estimate of So,ooo is now regarded as an exaggeration. 

2 Several of these are still in use. 

3 The Romans carried their aqueducts across depressions and valleys on high 
arches of masonry, not because they were ignorant of the principle that water seeks 
a level, but for the reason that they could not make large pipes strong enough to 
resist the very great pressure to which they would be subjected. 



320 



ROMAN ARCHITECTURE 



running in long, broken lines over the plains beyond the walls 
of Rome are to-day the most striking feature of the Campagna. 

451. Thermae, or Baths. — Among the ancient Romans bathing 
became in time a luxurious art. Under the Republic bathing 
houses were erected in considerable numbers. But it was during 
the imperial period that those magnificent structures to which the 
name Thermce properly attaches, were erected. These edifices 
were among the most elaborate and expensive of the imperial 




Fig. 99. — The Claudian Aqueduct. (From a photograph) 

works. They contained chambers for cold, hot, and swimming 
baths ; dressing rooms and gymnasia ; museums and libraries ; 
covered colonnades for lounging and conversation ; and every 
other adjunct that could add to the sense of luxury and relaxa- 
tion. 4 Being intended to exhibit the liberality of their builders, 
they were thrown open to the public free of charge. 



II. Literature, Philosophy, and Law 

452. Relation of Roman to Greek Literature: the Poets of the 
Republican Era. — Latin literature was almost wholly imitative or 
borrowed, being a reproduction of Greek models ; nevertheless it 

4 Lanciani calls these imperial Thermae " gigantic clubhouses, whither the volup- 
tuary and the elegant youth repaired for pastime and enjoyment." 



POETS OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE 32 1 

performed a most important service for civilization : it was the 
medium for the dissemination throughout the world of the rich 
literary treasures of Greece. 

It was the dramatic productions of the Greeks which were first 
studied and copied at Rome. Livius Andronicus, Naevius, En- 
nius, Plautus, and Terence, all of whom wrote under the Repub- 
lic, are the most noted of the Roman dramatists. Most of their 
plays were simply adaptations or translations of Greek pieces. 

During the later republican era there appeared two poets 
of distinguished merit, Lucretius and Catullus. Lucretius (95- 
51 B.C.) was an evolutionist, and in his great poem On the 
Nature of Things we find anticipated many of the conclusions 
of modern scientists. 

453. Poets of the Augustan Age. — Three poets contributed 
to cast an unfading luster over the period covered by the reign 
of Augustus, — Vergil (70-19 B.C.), Horace (65-8 B.C.), and 
Ovid (43 b.c.-a.d. 18). So distinguished have these writers 
rendered the age in which they lived, that any period in a 
people's literature marked by exceptional literary taste and 
refinement is called, in allusion to this Roman era, an Augustan 
Age (sec. 397). 

454. Satire and Satirists. — Satire thrives best in the reeking 
soil and tainted atmosphere of an age of selfishness, immorality, 
and vice. Such an age was that which followed the Augustan 
at Rome. Hence arose a succession of writers whose mastery 
of sharp and stinging satire has caused their productions to 
become the models of all subsequent attempts in the same species 
of literature. Two names stand out in special prominence, — 
Persius (a.d. 34-62) and Juvenal (about a.d. 40-120). After 
the death of Juvenal the Roman world produced not a single 
poet of preeminent merit. 

455. Oratory among the Romans. — " Public oratory," as has 
been truly said, " is the child of political freedom, and cannot exist 
without it." We have seen this illustrated in the history of repub- 
lican Athens (sec. 260). Equally well is the same truth exempli- 
fied by the records of the Roman state. All the great orators 



322 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW 

of Rome arose under the Republic. Among these Hortensius 
(114-50 B.C.), a learned jurist, and Marcus Tullius Cicero (106— 
43 B.C.) stand preeminent. Of these two Cicero is easily first, 
— " the most eloquent of all the sons of Romulus." 5 

456. Latin Historians. — Ancient Rome produced four writers 
of history whose works have won for them a permanent fame, — 
Caesar, Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. Of Caesar and his Commen- 
taries on the Gallic War we have learned in a previous chapter. 
His Commentaries will always be cited along with the Anabasis 
of Xenophon as a model of the narrative style of writing. Sallust 
(86-34 B.C.) was the contemporary and friend of Ceesar. The 
two works upon which his fame rests are the Conspiracy of Cati- 
line and the Jugurthine War. 

Livy (59 B.C.— a.d. 17) was one of the brightest ornaments of 
the Augustan Age. Herodotus amon'g the ancient, and Macaulay 
among the modern, writers of historical narrative are the names 
with which his is oftenest compared. His greatest work is his 
Annals, a history of Rome from the earliest times to the year 
9 B.C. Unfortunately, only thirty-five of the one hundred and 
forty-two books 6 of this admirable production have been pre- 
served. Many have been the laments over " the lost books of 
Livy." As a chronicle of actual events, Livy's history, particularly 
in its earlier parts, is very unreliable ; however, it is invaluable 
as an account of what the Romans themselves believed respecting 
the founding of their city and the deeds and virtues of their 
forefathers. 

The most highly prized work of Tacitus is his Germania, a 
treatise on the manners and customs of the Germans. In this 
work Tacitus sets in strong contrast the virtues of the untutored 
Germans and the vices of the cultured Romans. 



5 Even more highly prized than his orations are his letters, for Cicero was a most 
delightful letter writer. His letters to his friend Atticus are among the most charm- 
ing specimens of that species of composition. 

6 It should be borne in mind that a book in the ancient sense was simply a roll of 
manuscript or parchment, and contained nothing like the amount of matter held 
by an ordinary modern volume. Thus Caesar's Gallic Wars, which makes a single 
volume of moderate size with us, made eight Roman books. 



SCIENCE, ETHICS, AND PHILOSOPHY 



323 




457. Science, Ethics, and Philosophy. — Under this head may 
be grouped the names of Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Marcus Aurelius, 
and Epictetus. 

Seneca (about a.d. 1-65), moralist and philosopher, has already 
come to our notice as the tutor of Nero (sec. 403). He was a 
disbeliever in the popular religion of his 
countrymen, and entertained concep- 
tions of God and his moral government 
not very different from those of Socrates. 

Pliny the Elder (a.d. 23-79) is almost 
the only Roman who won renown as an 
investigator of the phenomena of nature. 
The only work of his that has been 
spared to us is his Natural History, a 
sort of Roman encyclopedia. 

Marcus Aurelius the emperor and fig, 100. Seneca 

EpictetUS the slave hold the first place From the double bust of Seneca 

among the ethical teachers of Rome. and Socrates in the Berlin 

• . Museum 

They were the last eminent representa- 
tives and expositors of the philosophy of Zeno (sec. 272). 
Christianity, giving a larger place to the affections than did 
Stoicism, was already fast winning the hearts of men. 

458. Writers of the Early Latin Church. — The Christian authors 
of the first three centuries, like the writers of the New Testament, 
employed the Greek, that being the language of learning and 
culture. As the Latin tongue, however, gradually came into more 
general use throughout the West, the Christian authors naturally 
began to use it in the composition of their works. Hence almost 
all the writings of the Fathers of the Church produced in the 
western half of the Empire during the later imperial period were 
composed in Latin. Among the many names that adorn the 
Church literature of this period must be mentioned St. Jerome 
and St. Augustine. 

Jerome (a.d. 3427-420) is held in memory especially through 
his translation of the Scriptures into Latin. This version is known 
as the Vulgate, and is the one which, with slight changes, is still 



324 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW 

used in the Catholic Church. " It was for Europe of the Middle 
Ages," asserts Mackail, " more than Homer was to Greece." 

Aurelius Augustine (a.d. 354-430) was born near Carthage, in 
Africa. His City of God, a truly wonderful work, possesses a 
special interest for the historian. The book was written just when 
Rome was becoming the spoil of the barbarians. It was designed 
to answer the charge of the pagans that Christianity, turning the 
people away from the worship of the ancient gods, was the cause 
of the calamities that were befalling the Roman state. 

459. Roman Law and Law Literature Although the Latin 

writers in all the departments of literary effort which we have so 
far reviewed did much valuable work, yet the Roman intellect 
in all these directions was under Greek guidance. But in another 
department it was different. We mean, of course, the field of 
legal and political science. Here the Romans ceased to be pupils 
and became teachers. Nations, like men, have their mission. 
Rome's mission was to give laws to the world. 

In the year a.d. 527 Justinian became Emperor of the Roman 
Empire in the East. He almost immediately appointed a commis- 
sion, headed by the great lawyer Tribonian, to collect and arrange 
in a systematic manner the immense mass of Roman laws and 
the writings of the jurists. The undertaking was like that of the 
decemvirs in connection with the Twelve Tables, only far greater. 
The result of the work of the commission was what is known as 
the Corpus Juris Civilis, or " Body of the Civil Law." This con- 
sisted of three parts, — the Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes. 
The Code 7 was a revised and compressed collection of all the 
laws, instructions to judicial officers, and opinions on legal subjects 
promulgated by the different emperors since the time of Hadrian ; 
the Pandects (all-containing) were a digest or abridgment of the 
writings, opinions, and decisions of the most eminent of the old 
Roman jurists and lawyers. The Institutes were a condensed 
edition of the Pandects, and were intended to form an elementary 
text-book for the use of students. 

7 A later work called the Novels comprised the laws of Justinian subsequent to 
the completion of the Code. 



EDUCATION 325 

The body of the Roman law thus preserved and transmitted 
was the great contribution of the Latin intellect to civilization. 8 It 
has exerted a profound influence upon the law systems of almost 
all the European peoples. Thus does the once little Palatine city 
of the Tiber still rule the world. The religion of Judea, the arts 
of Greece, and the laws of Rome are three very real and potent 
elements in modern civilization. 

III. Social Life 

460. Education. — Under the Republic there were no public 
schools in Rome ; education was a private affair. Under the 
early Empire a mixed system prevailed, there being both public 
and private schools. Later, education came more completely 
under the supervision of the state. The salaries of the teachers 
and lecturers were usually paid by the municipalities, but some- 
times from the imperial chest. 

The education of the Roman boy differed from that of the Greek 
youth in being more practical. The laws of the Twelve Tables 
were committed to memory ; and rhetoric and oratory were given 
special attention, as a mastery of the art of public speaking was 
an almost indispensable acquirement for the Roman citizen who 
aspired to take a prominent part in the affairs of state. 

After their conquest of Magna Grsecia and of Greece the Romans 
were brought into closer relations with Greek culture than had 
hitherto existed. The Roman youth were taught the language of 
Athens, often to the neglect, it appears, of their native tongue. 

8 Although the Romans developed a wonderfully complex unwritten constitution, 
still, aside from their municipal and administrative systems, they made no permanent 
contribution to the science of constitutional law. It was left for the English people, 
practically unaided by Roman precedents, to work out the constitution of the modern 
free state. The primary assemblies of the Romans could afford no instructive prece- 
dents in the department of legislation. The practical working of the device of the 
dual executive of the Republic was not calculated to commend it to later statesmen. 
The single admirable feature in the composition of the later republican Senate of 
Rome, namely, the giving of seats in that body to ex-magistrates, has not been imi- 
tated by modern constitution makers, though James Bryce, in his commentary on the 
American Commonwealth, suggests that they might have done so to advantage in 
the making up of the upper chambers of their legislatures. 



326 SOCIAL LIFE 

Young men belonging to families of means not unusually went to 
Greece, just as the graduates of our schools go to Europe, to finish 
their education. Many of the most prominent statesmen of Rome, 
as, for instance, Cicero and Julius Caesar, received the advantages 
of this higher training in the schools of Greece. 

Somewhere between the ages of fourteen and eighteen the boy 
exchanged his purple-hemmed toga, or gown, for one of white 
wool, which was in all places and at all times the significant 
badge of Roman citizenship and Roman equality. 

461. Social Position of Woman. — Until after her marriage the 
daughter of the family was kept in almost Oriental seclusion. 
Marriage gave her a certain freedom. She might now be present 
at the races of the circus and the shows of the theater and amphi- 
theater, — a privilege rarely accorded to her before marriage. 

In the early virtuous period of the Roman state the wife and 
mother held a dignified and assured position in the household, 
and divorces were unusual, there being no instance of one, it is 
said, until the year 231 B.C. ; but in later times her position became 
less honored and divorce grew to be very common. The husband 
had the right to divorce his wife for the slightest cause or for 
no cause at all. In this disregard of the sanctity of the family 
relation may doubtless be found one cause of the degeneracy 
and failure of the Roman stock. 

462. Public Amusements; the Theater and the Circus. — The 
entertainments of the theater, the games of the circus, and the 
combats of the amphitheater were the three principal public 
amusements of the Romans. These entertainments, in general, 
increased in popularity as liberty declined, the great festive 
gatherings at the various places of amusement taking the place 
of the political assemblies of the Republic. The public exhibitions 
under the Empire were, in a certain sense, the compensation 
which the emperors offered the people for their surrender of 
the right of participation in public affairs ; and the people were 
content to accept the exchange. 

Tragedy was never held in high esteem at Rome ; the people 
saw too much real tragedy in the exhibitions of the amphitheater 



ANIMAL BAITINGS 327 

to care much for the make-believe tragedies of the stage. The 
entertainments of the theaters usually took the form of comedies, 
farces, and pantomimes. The last were particularly popular, both 
because the vast size of the theaters made it quite impossible for 
the actor to make his voice heard throughout the structure and 
for the reason that the language of signs was the only language 
that could be readily understood by an audience made up of so 
many different nationalities as composed a Roman assemblage. 
Almost from the beginning the Roman stage was gross and immoral. 
It was one of the main agencies to which must be attributed the 
undermining of the originally sound moral life of Roman society. 
More important and more popular than the entertainments of 
the theater were the various games of the circus, especially the 
chariot races. 

463. Animal Baitings. — But far surpassing in their terrible 
fascination all other public amusements were the animal baitings 
and the gladiatorial combats of the amphitheater. The beasts — 
bears, wolves, lions, crocodiles, elephants, and tigers — required for 
the baitings were secured in different parts of the world and trans- 
ported to Rome and the other cities of the Empire at enormous 
expense. The creatures were pitted against one another in every 
conceivable way. Often a promiscuous multitude would be turned 
loose in the arena at once. But even the terrific scene that then 
ensued became at last too tame to stir the blood of the Roman 
populace. Hence a new species of entertainment was introduced 
and grew rapidly into favor with the spectators of the amphi- 
theater. This was the gladiatorial combat. 

464. The Gladiatorial Combats. — Gladiatorial shows seem to 
have had their origin in Etruria, whence they were brought to 
Rome. It was a custom among the early Etruscans to slay pris- 
oners upon the warrior's grave, it being thought that the manes 
of the dead delighted in the blood of such victims. In later times 
the prisoners were allowed to fight and kill one another, this being 
deemed more humane than their cold-blooded slaughter. 

The first gladiatorial spectacle at Rome was presented by two 
sons at the funeral of their father in the year 264 b.c. From this 



328 



SOCIAL LIFE 



time the public taste for this species of entertainment grew rapidly, 
and by the beginning of the imperial period had become a perfect 
infatuation. It was now no longer the manes of the dead, but the 
spirits of the living that the spectacles were intended to appease. 
At first the combatants were slaves, captives, or condemned crim- 
inals ; but at last knights, senators, and even women descended 
voluntarily into the arena. Training schools were established at 
Rome and in other cities. Free citizens often sold themselves to 
the keepers of these seminaries ; and to them flocked desperate 
men of all classes and ruined spendthrifts of the noblest patrician 

houses. Slaves and 
criminals were encour- 
aged to become profi- 
cient in the art by the 
promise of freedom if 
they survived the com- 
bats beyond a certain 
number of years. 

Sometimes the glad- 
iators fought in pairs ; 
again, great companies 
engaged at once in the 
deadly fray. They 
fought in chariots, on 
horseback, on foot, — in 
all the ways that soldiers were accustomed to fight in actual battle. 
The contestants were armed with lances, swords, daggers, tridents, 
and every manner of weapon. Some were provided with nets and 
lassos with which they entangled their adversaries and then slew 
them. The life of a wounded gladiator was, in ordinary cases, in 
the hands of the audience. If in response to his appeal for mercy, 
which was made by outstretching the forefinger, the spectators 
waved their handkerchiefs or reached out their hands with thumbs 
extended, that indicated that his prayer had been heard ; but if 
they extended their hands with thumbs turned in, that was the 
signal for the victor to give him the death stroke. Sometimes 




Fig. ior. — Gladiators 
(From an ancient mosaic) 



GLADIATORIAL COMBATS 329 

the dying were aroused and forced to resume the fight by being 
burned with a hot iron. The dead bodies were dragged from the 
arena with hooks, like the carcasses of animals, and the pools of 
blood soaked up with dry sand. 

These shows increased to such an extent that they entirely 
overshadowed the entertainments of the circus and the theater. 
Ambitious officials and commanders arranged such spectacles in 
order to curry favor with the masses; magistrates were expected 
to give them in connection with the public festivals ; the heads 
of aspiring families exhibited them " in order to acquire social 
position " ; wealthy citizens prepared them as an indispensable 
feature of a fashionable banquet ; the children caught the spirit 
of their elders and imitated them in their plays. 

The rivalries between ambitious leaders during the later years 
of the Republic tended greatly to increase the number of gladia- 
torial shows, as liberality in arranging these spectacles was a sure 
passport to popular favor. It was reserved for the emperors, how- 
ever, to exhibit them on a truly imperial scale. Titus, upon the 
dedication of the Flavian amphitheater, provided games, mostly 
gladiatorial combats, that lasted one hundred days. Trajan cele- 
brated his victories with shows that continued still longer, in the 
progress of which ten thousand gladiators fought upon the arena. 9 

465. Luxury. — By luxury, as we shall use the word, we mean 
extravagant and self-indulgent living. This vice seems to have 
been almost unknown in early Rome. The primitive Romans 
were men of frugal habits, who found contentment in poverty 
and disdained riches. A great change, however, as we have seen, 
passed over Roman society after the conquest of the East and the 
development of the corrupt provincial system of the later Re- 
public. The colossal fortunes quickly and dishonestly amassed by 
the ruling class marked the incoming at Rome of such a reign of 
luxury as perhaps no other capital of the world ever witnessed. 
This luxury was at its height in the last century of the Republic 
and the first of the Empire. Never perhaps has great wealth been 
more grossly misused than during this period at Rome. 

9 For the suppression of the gladiatorial games, see sec. 436. 



330 SOCIAL LIFE 

466. State Distribution of Corn. — The free distribution of corn 
at Rome has been characterized as the " leading fact of Roman 
life." It will be recalled that this pernicious practice had its 
beginnings in the legislation of Gaius Gracchus (sec. 364). Just 
before the establishment of the Empire over three hundred thou- 
sand Roman citizens were recipients of this state bounty. In the 
time of the Antonines the number is asserted to have been even 
larger. The corn for this enormous distribution was derived, in 
large part, from a grain tribute exacted of the African and other 
corn-producing provinces. In the third century, to the largesses 
of corn were added doles of oil, wine, and pork. 

The evils that resulted from this misdirected state charity can 
hardly be overstated. Idleness and all its accompanying vices 
were fostered to such a degree that we probably shall not be 
wrong in enumerating the practice as one of the chief causes of 
the demoralization of society at Rome under the emperors. 

467. Slavery. — The number of slaves under the later Republic 
and the earlier Empire was very great, some estimates making it 
equal to the number of freemen. Some large proprietors owned 
as many as twenty thousand. The love of ostentation led to the 
multiplication of offices in the households of the wealthy and the 
employment of a special slave for every different kind of work. 
Thus in some families there was kept a slave whose sole duty it 
was to care for his master's sandals. The price of slaves varied 
from a few dollars to ten or twenty thousand dollars, — these last 
figures being of course exceptional. Greek slaves were the most 
valuable, as their lively intelligence rendered them serviceable in 
positions calling for special talent. 

The slave class was chiefly recruited, as in Greece, by war and 
by the practice of kidnapping. Some of the outlying provinces 
in Asia and Africa were almost depopulated by the slave hunters. 
Delinquent taxpayers were often sold as slaves, and frequently 
poor persons sold themselves into servitude. 

The feeling entertained towards this unfortunate class in the 
later republican period is illustrated by Varro's classification of 
slaves as "vocal agricultural implements," and again by Cato the 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 331 

Censor's recommendation to masters to sell their old and de- 
crepit slaves in order to save the expense 'of caring for them. In 
many cases, as a measure of precaution, the slaves were forced 
to work in chains and to sleep in subterranean prisons. Their 
bitter hatred towards their masters, engendered by harsh treat- 
ment, is witnessed by the well-known proverb, "As many enemies 
as slaves," and by the servile revolts of the republican period. 

Slaves were treated better under the Empire than under the 
later Republic, — a change to be attributed doubtless to the influ- 
ence of Stoicism and of Christianity. From the first century of 
the Empire forward there is observable a growing sentiment of 
humanity towards the bondsman. Imperial edicts take away from 
the master the right to kill his slave or to sell him to the trader 
in gladiators, or even to treat him with undue severity. This 
marks the beginning of a slow reform which in the course of ten 
or twelve centuries resulted in the complete, or almost complete, 
abolition of slavery in Christian Europe. 

Selections from the Sources. — Cato, On Agriculture, chap, ii; the 
duties of a Roman proprietor. Tacitus, Dialogue Concerning Oratory, 
chaps, xxviii and xxix; the old and the new education. Munro, A Source 
Book of Roman History, pp. 179-216. 

Secondary Works. — Lanciani, R., Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent 
Discoveries and The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome. Sellar, 
W. Y., The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age. Mackail, J. W., Latin 
Literature. Hadley, J., Introduction to Roman Law, Lect. iii, " The Roman 
Law before Justinian." Gibbon, chap, xliv, for Roman jurisprudence. 
This chapter is one of the most noted of Gibbon's great work. Inge, W. R., 
Social Life in Rome uitder the Ccesars. Guhl, E., and Koner, W., The 
Life of the Greeks and Romans ; consult Index. Lecky, W. E. H., History 
of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne ; a work of first impor- 
tance. The student is recommended to read vol. i, chap. ii. Dill, S., Roman 
Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire ; readbk. v, pp. 321-376, 
on " Characteristics of Roman Education and Culture in the Fifth Century." 
Preston, H. W., and Dodge, L., The Private Life of the Romans. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Roman architecture. 2. Roman villas. 
3. The Roman roads. 4. Seneca. 5. Pliny the Elder. 6. Society at Rome 
under the later Empire. See Dill. 7. The gladiatorial combats. 8. Marriage 
ceremonies. 9. Funeral customs. 10. The Roman triumph. 



Part II 
MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY 



CHAPTER XXXVI 
INTRODUCTION 

468. Preliminary Survey As has already been noted, the 

fourteen centuries since the fall of the Roman Empire in the West 
are usually conceived as forming two periods, — the Middle Ages, 
or the period lying between the fall of Rome and the discovery 
of America by Columbus in 1492, and the Modern Age, which 
extends from the latter event to the present time. The Middle 
Ages again naturally subdivide into two periods, - — the Dark Ages 
and the Age of Revival ; while the Modern Age, as we shall view 
it, also falls into two divisions, — the Era of the Protestant 
Reformatioii and the Era of the Political Revolution. 

469. Chief Characteristics of the Four Periods. — The Dark Ages, 
which embrace the years between the fall of Rome and the 
opening of the eleventh century, are so called for the reason that 
the inrush of the barbarians and the almost total eclipse of the 
light of classical culture caused them to contrast unfavorably, in 
enlightenment and social order, as well with the age which pre- 
ceded as with that which followed them. The period was one 
of origins, — of the beginnings of peoples, and languages, and 
institutions. 

The Age of Revival begins with the opening of the eleventh 
century and ends with the discovery of the New World. During 
all this time civilization was making slow but sure advances; 
social order was gradually triumphing over feudal anarchy, and 
governments were becoming more regular. The last part of 
the period especially was marked by a great intellectual revival, 

33 2 



WORLD HISTORY AND THE FALL OF ROME 333 

— a movement known as the Renaissance, or " New Birth," — by 
improvements, inventions, and discoveries which greatly stirred 
men's minds and awakened them as from a sleep. The Crusades, 
or Holy Wars, were the most remarkable undertakings of the age. 

The Era of the Reformation embraces the sixteenth century 
and the first half of the seventeenth. The period is characterized 
by the great religious movement known as the Reformation, and 
the tremendous struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism. 
Almost all the wars of the period were religious wars. The last 
great combat was the Thirty Years' War in Germany, which was 
closed by the celebrated Peace of Westphalia, in 1648. After 
this date the disputes and wars between parties and nations were 
dynastic or political rather than religious in character. 

The Era of the Political Revolution extends from the Peace of 
Westphalia to the present time. The age is especially character- 
ized by the great conflict between despotic and liberal principles 
of government, resulting in the triumph of democratic ideas. 
This is one of the most important revolutions that history records. 
The central event of the epoch was the terrible upheaval of the 
French Revolution. 

Having now made a general survey of the region we are to 
traverse, we must turn back to our starting point, the fall of Rome. 

470. Relation to World History of the Fall of Rome. — The calam- 
ity which in the fifth century befell the Roman Empire in the 
West is sometimes spoken of as an event marking the extinction 
of ancient civilization. The treasures of the Old World are 
represented as having been destroyed, and mankind as obliged 
to take a fresh start, — to lay the foundations of civilization anew. 
It was not so. All or almost all that was really valuable in the 
accumulations of antiquity escaped harm, and became sooner 
or later the possession of the succeeding ages. The catastrophe 
simply prepared the way for the shifting in the West of the scene 
of civilization from the south to the north of Europe, simply 
transferred at once political power, and gradually social and 
intellectual preeminence, from one race to another, — from the 
Roman to the Teuton. 



334 INTRODUCTION 

The event was not an unrelieved calamity, because fortunately 
the floods that seemed to be sweeping so much away were not the 
mountain torrent, which covers fruitful fields with worthless drift, 
but the overflowing Nile with its rich deposits. Over all the regions 
covered by the barbarian inundation a new stratum of population 
was thrown down, a new soil formed that was capable of nourish- 
ing a better civilization than any the world had yet seen. 

471. The Three Chief Elements of European Civilization. — We 
must now notice what survived the catastrophe of the fifth cen- 
tury, what it was that Rome transmitted to the new Teutonic race. 
This renders necessary an analysis of the elements of civilization. 

European civilization is mainly the result of the blending of three 
historic elements, — the Classical, the Hebrew, and the Teutonic. 

By the classical element in civilization is meant that whole 
body of arts, sciences, literatures, laws, manners, ideas, social 
arrangements, and models of imperial and municipal government, 
— everything, in a word, save Christianity, — that Greece and 
Rome gave to mediaeval and modern Europe. Taken together, 
these things constituted a valuable gift to the new northern race 
that was henceforth to represent civilization. 

By the Hebrew element in history is meant Christianity. This 
has been a most potent factor in modern civilization. It has so 
colored the life and so molded the institutions of the European 
peoples that their history is very largely a story of this religion, 
which, first going forth from Judea, was given to the younger world 
by the missionaries of Rome. Among the doctrines taught by the 
new religion were the unity of God, the brotherhood of man, and 
immortality, — doctrines which have greatly helped to make the 
modern so different from the ancient world. 

By the Teutonic element in history is meant the Germanic 
race. The Teutons, though of course they had the social insti- 
tutions and customs of a primitive people, were poor in those 
things in which the Romans were rich. They had neither arts, 
nor sciences, nor philosophies, nor literatures. But they had 
something better than all these things ; they had personal worth. 
It was because of this, because of their free independent spirit, 



CELTS, SLAVS, AND OTHER PEOPLES 335 

of their unbounded capacity for growth, for culture, for accomp- 
lishment, that the future time became theirs. 

472. Celts, Slavs, and Other Peoples. — Having noticed the 
Romans and the Teutons, the two most important of the peoples 
that present themselves to us at the time of the fall of Rome, if 
we now name the Celts, the Slavs, the Arabians, and the Mon- 
gols and Turks, we shall have under view the chief actors in the 
drama of mediaeval and of a large part of modern history. 

At the commencement of the mediaeval era the Celts were in 
front of the Teutons, clinging to the western edge of the Euro- 
pean continent, and engaged in a bitter contest with these latter 
peoples, which, in the antagonism of England and Ireland, was 
destined to extend itself to our own day. 

The Slavs were in the rear of the Teutonic tribes, pressing 
them on even as the Celts in front were struggling to resist their 
advance. These peoples, backward in civilization, will play only 
an obscure part in the transactions of the mediaeval era, but in 
the course of the modern period will assume a most commanding 
position among the European nations. 

The Arabians were hidden in their deserts ; but in the seventh 
century we shall see them, animated by a wonderful religious 
enthusiasm, issue from their peninsula and begin a contest with 
the Christian nations which, in its varying phases, was destined 
to fill a large part of the mediaeval period. 

The Mongols and Turks were buried in Central Asia. They 
will appear late in the eleventh century, proselytes for the most 
part of Mohammedanism ; and, as the religious ardor of the 
Semitic Arabians grows cool, we shall see the Islam standard car- 
ried forward by these zealous converts of another race, and finally, 
in the fifteenth century, we shall see the Crescent, the adopted 
emblem of the new religion, placed by the Ottoman Turks upon 
the dome of St. Sophia in Constantinople. 

As the Middle Ages draw to a close, the remote nations of 
Eastern Asia will gradually come within our circle of vision ; 
and, as the Modern Age dawns, we shall catch a glimpse of new 
continents and strange races of men beyond the Atlantic. 



Division I — -The Middle Ages 
FIRST PERIOD — THE DARK AGES 

(From the Fall of Rome to the Eleventh Century) 

CHAPTER XXXVII 
THE BARBARIAN KINGDOMS 

473. Introductory. — In connection with the history of the 
break-up of the Roman Empire in the West we have already 
given some account of the migrations and settlements of the 
German tribes. In the present chapter we shall indicate briefly 
the political fortunes, for the two centuries and more following the 
fall of Rome, of the principal kingdoms set up by the German 
chieftains in the different parts of the old Empire. 

474. Kingdom of the Ostrogoths (a.d. 493-554). — Odoacer 
will be recalled as the barbarian chief who dethroned the last of 
the Western Roman emperors (sec. 445). His feeble govern- 
ment in Italy lasted only seventeen years, when it was brought to 
an end by the invasion of the Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) under 
Theodoric, the greatest of their chiefs, who set up in Italy a new 
dominion known as the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths. 

The reign of Theodoric covered thirty-three years (a.d. 493- 
527), — years of such quiet and prosperity as Italy had not 
known since the happy era of the Antonines. The king made 
good his promise that his reign should be such that " the only 
regret of the people should be that the Goths had not come at 
an earlier period." 

The kingdom established by the rare abilities of Theodoric 
lasted only twenty-seven years after his death. Justinian, Emperor 
of the East (sec. 508), taking advantage of that event, sent his 
generals, first Belisarius and afterwards Narses, to deliver Italy 

336 



« 
§ 


Is 





5j 


p 

C5 


D 








n 


PS < 




M 2 


'a. 


« -a 




«J3 


s 


w 


p* 


H 


f'l 


H 


IJ 


B 






KINGDOM OF THE VISIGOTHS 337 

from the rule of the barbarians. The last of the Ostrogothic 
kings fell in battle, and Italy, with her fields ravaged and her 
cities in ruins, was reunited to the Empire (a.d. 554). 

475. Kingdom of the Visigoths (a.d. 415-71 i). — The Visi- 
goths (Western Goths) were already in possession of Southern 
Gaul and the greater part of Spain when the Roman Empire in 
the West was brought to an end by the act of Odoacer and his 
companions. Being driven south of the Pyrenees by the kings 
of the Franks, the Visigoths held their possessions in Spain until 
the beginning of the eighth century, when their rule was ended 
by the Saracens (sec. 522). The Visigothic kingdom when thus 
overturned had lasted nearly three hundred years. During this 
time the conquerors had mingled with the old Romanized inhabit- 
ants of Spain, so that in the veins of the Spaniard of to-day is 
blended the blood of Iberian, Celt, Roman, and Teuton, together 
with that of the last intruder, the African Moor. 

476. Kingdom of the Burgundians (a.d. 443-534). — The Bur- 
gundians we have already noticed as the founders of a principality 
in Southeastern Gaul (sec. 441). They were hardly well estab- 
lished in these parts before they came in collision with the Franks 
on the north, and were reduced by them to a state of dependence. 

477. Kingdom of the Vandals (a.d. 429-533).- — We have also 
previously spoken of the establishment in North Africa of the 
Kingdom of the Vandals, and told how, under the lead of their 
king Geiseric, they bore in triumph down the Tiber the heavy 
spoils of Rome (sec. 444). 

Being Arian Christians, the Vandals persecuted with furious 
zeal the orthodox party. Moved by the entreaties of the African 
Catholics, the Byzantine emperor Justinian sent his general Beli- 
sarius to drive the barbarians from Africa. The expedition was 
successful, and Carthage and the fruitful fields of Africa were 
restored to the Empire after having suffered the insolence of the 
barbarian conquerors for the space of above a hundred years. 
The Vandals remaining in the. country were gradually absorbed 
by the old Roman population, and after a few generations no 
certain trace of the barbarian invaders could be detected in the 



338 THE BARBARIAN KINGDOMS 

physical appearance, the language, or the customs of the inhabit- 
ants of the African coast. The Vandal nation had disappeared ; 
the name alone remained. 

478. The Franks under the Merovingians (a.d. 486-752). — 
Even long before the fall of Rome the Franks, as we have seen 
(sec. 441), were on the soil of Gaul, laying there the founda- 
tions of the French nation and monarchy. Among their sev- 
eral chieftains at this time was Clovis. Upon the break-up of the 
Roman Empire in the West, Clovis conceived the ambition of 
erecting a kingdom upon the ruins of the Roman power. He 
attacked Syagrius, the Roman governor of Gaul, and at Soissons 
gained a decisive victory over his forces (a.d. 486). Thus was 
destroyed forever in Gaul that Roman authority established among 
its barbarian tribes more than five centuries before by the con- 
quests of Julius Csesar. 

Clovis in a short time extended his authority over the greater 
part of Gaul, reducing to the condition of tributaries the various 
Teutonic tribes that had taken possession of different portions of 
the country. Upon his death (a.d. 511) his extensive dominions, 
in accordance with the ancient Teutonic law of inheritance, were 
divided among his four sons. About a century and a half of dis- 
cord followed, by the end of which time the Merovingians * had 
become so feeble and inefficient that they were contemptuously 
called rois faineants, or "do-nothing kings," and an ambitious 
officer of the crown, known as Mayor of the Palace, in a way that 
will be explained a little later, pushed aside the weak Merovingian 
king and gave to the Frankish monarchy a new royal line, — 
the Carolingian. 

479. Kingdom of the Lombards (a.d. 568-774). — Barely a 
decade had passed after the recovery of Italy from the Ostrogoths 
by the Eastern emperor Justinian (sec. 474), before a large part 
of the peninsula was again lost to the Empire through its con- 
quest by another barbarian tribe known as the Lombards. When 
they entered Italy the Lombards were Christians of the Arian sect ; 
but in time they became converts to the orthodox faith, and Pope 

1 So called from Merowig, an early chieftain of the race. 



THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST OF BRITAIN 339 

Gregory I bestowed upon their king a diadem which came to be 
known as the " Iron Crown," for the reason that there was wrought 
into it what was believed to be one of the nails of the cross upon 
which Christ had suffered. 

The Kingdom of the Lombards was destroyed by Charles the 
Great, the most noted of the Frankish rulers, in the year 774; 
but the blood of the invaders had by this time become inter- 
mingled with that of the former subjects of the Empire, so that 
throughout all that part of the peninsula which is still called Lom- 
bardy after them, one will to-day occasionally see the fair hair and 
light complexion which reveal the strain of German blood in the 
veins of the present inhabitants. 

480. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain. — In the fifth cen- 
tury of our era, being then engaged in her death struggle with 
the barbarians, Rome withdrew her legions from Britain in order 
to protect Italy. Thus that province was left exposed to the 
depredations of the Anglo-Saxon corsairs from the Continent. 
No other province of the Roman Empire made such determined 
and heroic resistance against the barbarians. It is to this period 
of desperate struggle that the famous King Arthur belongs. The 
legends that have gathered about the name of this national hero 
are mostly mythical ; yet it is possible that he had a real exist- 
ence and that the name represents one or more of the most 
valiant of the Celtic chiefs who battled so long and heroically 
against the pagan invaders. 

The conquerors of Britain belonged to three Teutonic tribes, 
— the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, — but among the Celts they all 
passed under the name of Saxons, and among themselves, after 
they began to draw together into a single nation, under that of 
Angles, whence the name England (Angle-land). 

By the close of the sixth century the invading bands had set 
up in the conquered parts of the island eight or nine, or perhaps 
more, kingdoms, — frequently designated, though somewhat inac- 
curately, as the Heptarchy. For the space of two hundred years 
there was an almost perpetual strife for supremacy among the 
leading states. Finally, Egbert, king of Wessex (a.d, 802-839), 



340 THE BARBARIAN KINGDOMS 

brought all the other kingdoms to a subject or tributary con- 
dition, and became in reality, though he seems never, save on 
one occasion, to have actually assumed the title, the first king 
of England. 

481. Teutonic Tribes outside the Empire. — We have now spoken 
of the most important of the Teutonic tribes which forced them- 
selves within the limits of the Roman Empire in the West, and 
that there, upon the ruins of the civilization they had overthrown, 
laid or helped to lay the foundations of the modern nations of 
Italy, Spain, France, and England. Beyond the boundaries of the 
old Empire were still other tribes and clans of this same mighty 
family of nations, — tribes and clans that were destined to play 
great parts in European history. 

On the east, beyond the Rhine, were the ancestors of the 
modern Germans. Notwithstanding the immense hosts that the 
forests and morasses of Germany had poured into the Roman 
provinces, the Fatherland, in the sixth century of our era, seemed 
still as crowded as before the great migration began. These tribes 
were yet barbarians in manners, and, for the most part, pagans in 
religion. In the northwest of Europe were the Scandinavians, 
the ancestors of the modern Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians. 
They were as yet untouched either by the civilization or the 
religion of Rome. 

Selections from the Sources. — The Letters of Cassiodorus (trans, by 
Thomas Hodgkin). Read bk. i, letters 24 and 35; bk. ii, letters 32 and 
34; bk. iii, letters 17, 19, 29, 31, and 43 ; bk. xi, letters 12 and 13; bk. xii, 
letter 20. These letters are invaluable in showing what was the condition 
of things in the transition period between ancient and mediaeval times. 

Secondary Works. — Hodgkin, T., Italy and her Invaders and The- 
odoric the Goth ; Hodgkin is recognized as the best authority on the period 
of the migration. Gummere, F. B., Germanic Origins; an authoritative 
and interesting work on the early culture of the Germans. Gibbon, chaps, 
xxxviii and xxxix. Church, R. W., The Beginning of the Middle Ages, 
chaps, i-v. Emerton, E., An Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages, 
chaps, vi and vii. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 
THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS 

I. The Conversion of the Barbarians 

482. Introductory. — The most important event in the history of 
the tribes that took possession of the Roman Empire in the West 
was their conversion to Christianity. Many of the barbarians were 
converted before or soon after their entrance into the Empire ; 
to this circumstance the Roman provinces owed their immunity 
from the excessive cruelties which pagan barbarians seldom fail 
to inflict upon a subjected enemy. Alaric left untouched the 
treasures of the churches of the Roman Christians because his 
own faith was also Christian. For like reason the Vandal king 
Geiseric yielded to the prayers of Pope Leo the Great and prom- 
ised to leave to the inhabitants of the Imperial City their lives. 

483. Conversion of the Goths, Vandals, and Other Tribes. — The 
first converts to Christianity among the barbarians beyond the 
limits of the Empire were won from among the Goths. Foremost 
of the apostles that arose among them was Ulfilas, who translated 
the Scriptures into the Gothic language, omitting from his version, 
however, the Books of the Kings, as he feared that the stirring 
recital of wars and battles in that portion of the Word might kindle 
into too fierce a flame the martial ardor of his new converts. 

What happened in the case of the Goths happened also in the 
case of most of the barbarian tribes that participated in the over- 
throw of the Roman Empire in the West. By the time of the fall 
of Rome the Goths, the Vandals, the Suevi, and the Burgundians 
had become proselytes to Christianity. They, however, professed 
the Arian creed, which had been condemned by the great council 
of the Church held at Nicaea during the reign of Constantine the 
Great. Hence they were regarded as heretics by the Catholic 
Church, and all had to be reconverted to the orthodox creed, 
which good work was gradually accomplished. 

34i 



342 THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS 

The remaining Teutonic tribes of whose conversion we shall 
speak — the Franks, the Anglo-Saxons, and the chief tribes of 
Germany — embraced at the outset the Catholic faith. 

484. Conversion of the Franks ; Importance of this Event. — The 
Franks when they entered the Empire, like the Angles and Saxons 
when they landed in Britain, were still pagans. Christianity gained 
way very slowly among them until a supposed interposition by the 
Christian God in their behalf led the king and nation to adopt 
the new religion in place of their old faith. The circumstances, 
as reported by tradition, were these. In a terrible battle between 
the Alemanni and the Franks under their king Clovis, the situa- 
tion of the Franks had become desperate. Then Clovis, falling 
upon his knees, called upon the God of the Christians, and vowed 
that if he would give him the victory he would become his fol- 
lower. The battle turned in favor of the Franks, and Clovis, 
faithful to his vow, was baptized, and with him three thousand 
of his warriors. 

This story of the conversion of Clovis and his Franks illustrates 
how the belief of the barbarians in omens and divine interpositions, 
and particularly their feeling that if their gods did not do for them 
all they wanted done they had a right to set them aside and 
choose others in their stead, contributed to their conversion, and 
how the reception of the new faith was often a tribal or national 
affair rather than a matter of personal conviction. 

" The conversion of the Franks," says the historian Milman, 
" was the most important event in its remote as well as its 
immediate consequences in European history." It was of such 
moment for the reason that the Franks embraced the orthodox 
Catholic faith, while almost all the other German invaders of the 
Empire had embraced the heretical Arian creed. This secured 
them the loyalty of their Roman subjects and also gained for them 
the official favor of the Church of Rome. Thus was laid the basis 
of the ascendancy in the West of the Frankish kings. 

485. Augustine's Mission to England. — In the year a.d. 596 
Pope Gregory I sent the monk Augustine with a band of forty 
companions to teach the Christian faith in Britain, in whose 



THE CONVERSION OF IRELAND 



343 




people he had become interested through seeing in the slave 
market at Rome some fair-faced captives from that remote region. 

The monks were favorably received by the English, who listened 
attentively to the story the strangers had come to tell them ; and 
being persuaded that the tidings were true, they burned the tem- 
ples of Woden and Thor, and were in large numbers baptized in 
the Christian faith. 1 

One of the most important consequences of the conversion of 
Britain was the reestablishment of that connection of the island 
with Roman civil- 
ization which had 
been severed by 
the calamities of 
the fifth century. 
As Green says, — 
he is speaking of 
the embassy of 
St. Augustine, — 
"The march of 
the monks as they 
chanted their 
solemn litany was 
in one sense a return of the Roman legions who withdrew at 
the trumpet call of Alaric. . . . Practically Augustine's landing 
renewed that union with the western world which the landing 
of Hengist had destroyed. The new England was admitted into 
the older commonwealth of nations. The civilization, art, let- 
ters, which had fled before the sword of the English conquerors, 
returned with the Christian faith." 

486. The Conversion of Ireland ; Iona. — -The spiritual conquest 
of Ireland was effected largely by a zealous priest named Patricius 
(d. about a.d. 469), better known as St. Patrick, the patron saint 



Fig. 102. — The Ruins of Iona 
(After an old drawing) 

That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would 
not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose 
piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona." 
— Dr. Johnson, A Journey to the Western Isles of 
Scotland 



1 Read the story in Bede's Ecclesiastical History, ii, 13 (Bohn). Bede the Vener- 
able (about a.d. 673-735) was a pious and learned Northumbrian monk, who wrote, 
among other works, an invaluable one entitled Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglo- 
rum (" The Ecclesiastical History of Vhe English Nation "). 



344 THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS 

of Ireland. With such success were his labors attended that by 
the time of his death a great part of the island had embraced the 
Christian faith. 

Never did any race receive the Gospel with more ardent 
enthusiasm. The Irish or Celtic Church sent out its devoted 
missionaries into the Pictish highlands, into the forests of Ger- 
many, and among the wilds of Alps and Apennines. Among the 
numerous religious houses founded by the Celtic missionaries was 
the famous monastery established a.d. 563 by the Irish monk 
St. Columba, on the little isle of Iona, just off the Pictish coast. 
Iona became a most renowned center of Christian learning and 
missionary zeal, and for almost two centuries was the point 
from which radiated light through the darkness of the surrounding 
heathenism. 

487. The Conversion of Germany. — The great apostle of Ger- 
many was the Saxon Winf rid, better known as St. Boniface. During 
a long and intensely active life he founded schools and monasteries, 
organized churches, preached and baptized, and at last died a 
martyr's death (a.d. 753). Through him, as says Milman, the 
Saxon invasion of England flowed back upon the Continent. 

The Christianizing of the tribes of Germany relieved the Teu- 
tonic folk of Western Europe from the constant peril of massacre 
by their heathen kinsmen, and erected a strong barrier in Central 
Europe against the advance of the waves of Turanian paganism 
and Mohammedanism which for centuries beat so threateningly 
against the eastern frontiers of Germany. 

488. Christianity in the North. — The progress of Christianity 
in the North was slow; but gradually, during the ninth, tenth, 
and eleventh centuries, the missionaries of the Church won over 
all the Scandinavian peoples. One important effect of their con- 
version was the checking of those piratical expeditions which 
during all the centuries of their pagan history had been constantly 
putting out from the fiords of the Northern peninsulas and 
vexing every shore to the south. 

By about the year 1000 all Europe was claimed by Christianity, 
save the regions of the Northwest about the Baltic, which were 



MONASTICISM DEFINED . 345 

inhabited chiefly by the still pagan Finns and Lapps, parts of 
what is now Russia, 2 and the larger portion of the Iberian penin- 
sula, which was in the hands of the Mohammedan Moors. 

II. The Rise of Monasticism 

489. Monasticism defined; the System fostered by Scripture 
Teachings. — It was during the period between the third and the 
sixth century that there grew up in the Church the institution 
known as Monasticism. This term, in its widest application, 
denotes a life of austere self-denial and of seclusion from the 
world, with the object of promoting the interests of the soul. 
As thus defined, the system embraced two prominent classes of 
ascetics : (1) hermits, or anchorites, — persons who, retiring from 
the world, lived solitary lives in desolate places ; (2) cenobites, 
or monks, who formed communities and lived usually under a 
common roof. 

Christian asceticism was fostered by teachings drawn from vari- 
ous texts of the Bible. Thus Christ himself had declared, " If any 
man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, 
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, 
he cannot be my disciple "; 3 and, again, he had said to the rich 
young man, " If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, 
and give to the poor." 4 These passages, and others like them, 
taken literally, tended greatly to confirm the belief of the ascetic 
that his life of isolation and poverty and abstinence was the most 
perfect life and the surest way to win salvation. 

St. Antony, an Egyptian ascetic (b. about a.d. 251), who by 
his example and influence gave a tremendous impulse to the 
movement, is called the Father of the Hermits. But the most 
renowned of all the anchorites of the East was St. Simeon Stylites, 
the Saint of the Pillar (d. a.d. 459), who spent thirty-six years on 

2 The real beginning of the conversion of Russia dates from about the close of the 
tenth century. Its evangelization was effected by the missionaries of Constantinople, 
that is, of the Greek or Eastern Church. 

3 Luke xiv. 26. 

4 Matthew xix. 21. 



346 THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS 

a column only three feet in diameter at the top, which he had 
gradually raised to a height of over fifty feet. 5 

490. Monasticism in the West During the fourth century 

the anchorite type of asceticism, which was favored by the mild 
climate of the Eastern lands, and especially by that of Egypt, 
assumed in some degree the monastic form ; that is to say, the 
fame of this or that anchorite or hermit drew about him a number 
of disciples, whose rude huts or cells formed what was known as 
a laura, the nucleus of a monastery. 

Soon after the cenobite system had been established in the East 
it was introduced into Europe, and in an astonishingly short space 
of time spread throughout all the Western countries where Chris- 
tianity had gained a foothold. Here it prevailed to the almost 
total exclusion of the hermit mode of life. Monasteries arose on 
every side. The number that fled to these retreats was vastly 
augmented by the disorder and terror attending the invasion of' 
the barbarians and the overthrow of the Empire in the West. 

491. The Rule of St. Benedict. — With the view of introducing 
some sort of regularity in regard to the practices and austerities 
of the monks, rules for their observance were early prescribed. 
The three essential requirements or vows were poverty, chastity, 
and obedience. 

The greatest legislator of the monks was St. Benedict of Nursia 
(a.d. 480-543), the founder of the celebrated monastery of Monte 
Cassino, situated midway between Rome and Naples, in Italy. 
His code was to the religious world what the Corpus Juris Civilis 
of Justinian (sec. 459) was to the lay society of Europe. Many of 
his rules were most wise and practical, as, for instance, one that 
made manual work a pious duty, and another that required the 
monk to spend an allotted time each day in sacred reading. 

The monks who subjected themselves to the rule of St. Bene- 
dict were known as Benedictines. The order became immensely 
popular. At one time it embraced about forty thousand abbeys. 

492. Services of the Monks to Civilization. — The early estab- 
lishment of the monastic system in the Church resulted in great 

5 Read Tennyson's poem, " St. Simeon Stylites." 



SERVICES OF THE MONKS TO CIVILIZATION 347 




Fig. 103. — A Monk Copyist 

(From a manuscript of the 

fifteenth century) 



advantages to the new world that was shaping itself out of the 
ruins of the old. The monks, especially the Benedictines, became 
agriculturists, and by patient labor converted the wild and marshy 
lands which they received as gifts from princes and others into 
fruitful fields, thus redeeming 
from barrenness some of the 
most desolate districts of 
Europe. 

The monks also became mis- 
sionaries, and it was largely to 
their zeal and devotion that the 
Church owed her speedy and 
signal victory over the bar- 
barians. 

The quiet air of the mon- 
asteries nourished learning as 
well as piety. The monks be- 
came teachers, and under the 
shelter of the monasteries established schools which were the 
nurseries of learning during the earlier Middle Ages and the 
homes for centuries of the best intellectual life of Europe. 

The monks also busied themselves as copyists, and with great 
painstaking and industry gathered and multiplied ancient manu- 
scripts, and thus preserved and transmitted to the modern world 
much classical learning and literature that would otherwise have 
been lost. They became also the chroniclers of the events of 
their own times, so that it is to them we are indebted for a great 
part of our knowledge of the early mediaeval centuries. Thus 
the scriptorium, or writing-room of the monastery, held the place 
in mediaeval society that the great publishing house holds in the 
modern world. 

The monks became further the almoners of the pious and the 
wealthy, and distributed alms to the poor and needy. Everywhere 
the monasteries opened their hospitable doors to the weary, the 
sick, and the discouraged. In a word, these retreats were the 
inns, the asylums, and the hospitals of the mediaeval ages. 



348 THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS 

III. The Rise of the Papacy 

493. The Empire within the Empire. — Long before the fall of 
Rome there had begun to grow up within the Roman Empire an 
ecclesiastical state, which was shaping itself upon the imperial 
model. This spiritual empire, like the secular empire, possessed 
a hierarchy of officers, of which deacons, priests or presbyters, and 
bishops were the most important. The bishops collectively formed 
what is known as the episcopate. There were four grades of 
bishops, namely, country bishops, city bishops, metropolitans or 
archbishops, and patriarchs. At the end of the fourth century 
there were five patriarchates, that is, regions ruled by patri- 
archs. These centered in the great cities of Rome, Constanti- 
nople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. 

Among the patriarchs, the patriarchs of Rome were accorded 
almost universally a precedence in honor and dignity. They 
claimed further a precedence in authority and jurisdiction. Besides 
the influence of great men, such as Leo the Great, Gregory the 
Great, and Nicholas I, who held the seat of St. Peter, there were 
various historical circumstances that contributed to the realization 
by the Roman bishops of their claim to supremacy and aided them 
vastly in establishing the almost universal authority of the see of 
Rome. In the following paragraphs we shall enumerate several 
of these favoring circumstances. These matters constitute the 
great landmarks in the rise and early growth of the Papacy. 

494. The Belief in the Primacy of St. Peter and in the Founding 
by him of the Church at Rome. — It came to be believed that the 
apostle Peter had been given by the Master a sort of primacy 
among his fellow-apostles. This belief was fostered by the fact 
that Christ had intrusted that disciple with the keys of the king- 
dom of heaven, and had invested him with authority as a teacher 
and interpreter of the Word by the commission, " Feed my lambs ; 
. . . feed my sheep," thus giving into his charge the entire flock 
of the Church. It also came to be believed that Peter himself 
had founded the church at Rome. Without doubt he preached 
there and suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Nero. 



RISE OF THE PAPACY 349 

These beliefs and interpretations of history, which make the 
Roman bishops the successors of the first of the apostles and the 
holders of his seat, contributed greatly, of course, to enhance their 
reputation and to justify their claim to a primacy of authority over 
all the dignitaries of the Church. 

495. Advantage of their Position at the Political Center of the 
World. — The claims of the Roman bishops were in the early cen- 
turies greatly favored by the spell in which the world was held 
by the name and prestige of imperial Rome. Thence it had been 
accustomed to receive commands in all temporal matters ; how 
very natural, then, that thither it should turn for command and 
guidance in spiritual affairs. The Roman bishops in thus occupy- 
ing the geographical and political center of the world enjoyed a 
great advantage over all other bishops and patriarchs. The halo 
that during many centuries of wonderful history had gathered 
about the Eternal City came naturally to invest with a kind of 
aureole the head of the Christian bishop. 

496. The Pastor as Protector of Rome. — Then, when the bar- 
barians came, there came a propitious occasion for the Roman 
bishops to widen their influence and enhance their authority. 
Rome's extremity was their opportunity. Thus it will be recalled 
how mainly through the intercession of the pious Pope Leo the 
Great the fierce Attila was persuaded to turn back and spare the 
Imperial City; and how the same bishop, in the year a.d. 455, 
also appeased in a measure the wrath of the Vandal Geiseric and 
shielded the inhabitants from the worst passions of a barbarian 
soldiery (sees. 443 and 444). 

Thus when the emperors, the natural defenders of the capital, 
were unable to protect it, the unarmed Pastor was able, through 
the awe and reverence inspired by his holy office, to render serv- 
ices that could not but result in bringing increased honor and 
dignity to the Roman see. 

497. Effects upon the Papacy of the Extinction of the Roman 
Empire in the West. — But if the misfortunes of the Empire in the 
West tended to the enhancement of the reputation and influence 
of the Roman bishops, much more did its final downfall tend to 



350 THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS 

the same end. Upon the surrender of the sovereignty of the 
West into the hands of the Emperor of the East, the bishops of 
Rome became the most important personages in Western Europe, 
and, being so far removed from the court at Constantinople, grad- 
ually assumed almost imperial powers. They became the arbiters 
between the barbarian chiefs and the Italians, and to them were 
referred for decision the disputes arising between cities, states, 
and kings. Especially did the bishops and archbishops through- 
out the West in their contests with the Arian barbarian rulers 
look to Rome for advice and help. It is easy to see how greatly 
these things tended to strengthen the authority and increase the 
influence of the Roman bishops. 

498. The Missions of Rome. — Again, the early missionary zeal 
of the church at Rome made her the mother of many churches, 
all of whom looked up to her with affectionate and grateful loy- 
alty. Thus the Angles and Saxons, won to the faith by the mis- 
sionaries of Rome, conceived a deep veneration for the holy see 
and became its most devoted children. To Rome it was that 
the Christian Britons made their most frequent pilgrimages, and 
thither they sent their offering of St. Peter's pence. And when 
the Saxons became missionaries to their pagan kinsmen of the 
Continent they transplanted into the heart of Germany these same 
feelings of filial attachment and love. 

499. Result of the Fall of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria 
before the Saracens. ■ — In the seventh century all the great cities 
of the East fell into the hands of the Mohammedans. This was 
a matter of tremendous consequence for the church at Rome, 
since in every one of these great capitals there was, or might 
have been, a rival of the Roman bishop. The virtual erasure of 
Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria from the map of Christendom 
left only one city, Constantinople, that could possibly nourish 
a rival of the Roman church. Thus did the very misfortunes 
of Christendom give an added security to the ever-increasing 
authority of the Roman prelate. 

500. The Iconoclastic Controversy; the Popes become Temporal 
Sovereigns. — A dispute about the use of images in worship, known 



THE ICONOCLASTIC CONTROVERSY 351 

in Church history as the "War of the Iconoclasts," 6 which broke 
out in the eighth century between the Greek churches of the 
East and the Latin churches of the West, drew after it far- 
reaching consequences as respects the growing power of the 
Roman pontiffs. 

Leo the Isaurian, who came to the throne of Constantinople in 
717, was a zealous Iconoclast. "The Greek churches of the East 
having been cleared of images, the Emperor resolved to clear 
also the Latin churches of the West of these symbols. To this 
end he issued a decree that they should not be used. The bishop 
of Rome not only opposed the execution of the edict, but by the 
ban of excommunication cut off the Emperor and the iconoclastic 
churches of the East from communion with the true Catholic 
Church. Though images — paintings and mosaics only — were 
permanently restored in the Eastern churches in 842, still by this 
time other causes of alienation had arisen, and the breach between 
the two sections of Christendom could not now be closed. The 
final outcome was the permanent separation, in the last half of the 
eleventh century, of the Church of the East from that of the West. 
The former became known as the Greek, Byzantine, or Eastern 
Church ; the latter, as the Latin, Roman, or Catholic Church. 

The East was thus eventually lost to the Roman see, but the 
loss was more than made good by fresh accessions of power in the 
West. In this quarrel with the Eastern emperors the Roman 
bishops formed an alliance with the Frankish princes. We shall 
a little later tell briefly the story of this alliance (Chapter XLII). 
Never did allies render themselves more serviceable to each other. 
The popes consecrated the Frankish chieftains as kings and em- 
perors ; the grateful Frankish kings defended the popes against 
all their enemies, imperial and barbarian, and dowering them with 
cities and provinces, laid the basis of their temporal power. 7 

6 Iconoclast means " image breaker." 

7 The cause of the Roman pontiffs, from about the eighth or ninth century for- 
ward, was greatly furthered by two remarkable forged documents, known as the 
Donation of Constantine and the False Decretals. The probable object of the former 
was to justify the donation of Pippin (sec. 530) by providing evidence of a similar 
and earlier donation by the first imperial patron of the Church. It " tells how 



352 THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS 

Such in broad outline was the way in which grew up the Papacy, 
an institution which, far beyond all others, was destined to mold 
the fortunes and direct the activities of Western Christendom 
throughout the mediaeval time. 

Selections from the Sources. — Bede, Ecclesiastical History. Readbk. i, 
chaps, xxiii-xxv ; bk. ii, chaps, i and xhi ; bk. iii, chaps, iii and xxv. Trans- 
lations and Reprints, vol. ii, No. 7, " Life of St. Columban." Henderson, 
Select Historical Documents, pp. 274-314, "The Rule of Saint Benedict." 
See also Robinson, Readings in European History, vol. i, chap. v. 

Secondary Works. — Kingsley, C, The Hermits. Montalembert, 
Count de, The Monks of the West, 6 vols.; an ardent eulogy of monasti- 
cism. Wishart, A. W., A Short History of Monks and Monasteries ; the 
best short account in English. Jessopp, A., The Coming of the Friars, 
chap, iii, " Daily Life in a Mediaeval Monastery." Emerton, E., Introduc- 
tion to the Study of the Middle Ages, chap, ix, " The Rise of the Christian 
Church," and chap, xi, " The Monks of the West." Adams, G. B., Civili- 
zation during the Middle Ages, chap, vi, " The Formation of the Papacy." 
Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of our Fathers, chap, ix, "The Primacy of 
Peter," and chap, x, " The Supremacy of the Popes " ; an authoritative 
statement of the Catholic view of these matters. Munro, D. C, and Sel- 
LERY, G. C, Mediaeval Civilization, pp. 60-86 and 1 14-158. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Conversion of the Angles and Saxons. 
2. The Life of St. Antony. 3. St. Columba and Iona. 4. Whitby. 5. St. 
Benedict and Monte Cassino. 6. The scriptorium of the monastery. 



Constantine the Great, cured of his leprosy by the prayers of Sylvester, resolved ... to 
forsake the ancient seat for a new capital on the Bosporus, lest the continuance of the 
secular government should cramp the freedom of the spiritual, and how he bestowed 
therewith upon the Pope and his successors the sovereignty over Italy and the coun- 
tries of the West." — Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, p. 100. 

The so-called Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, which appeared about the middle of the 
ninth century, tended to a similar end as did the Donation of Constantine, although 
they were originally put out in the interest of the bishops and not of the Pope. 
They formed part of a collection of Church documents, and included many alleged 
letters and edicts of the early popes. Granting their genuineness, they went to prove 
that the bishops of Rome in the second and third centuries exercised all that 
authority and extensive jurisdiction which were now being claimed by the popes 
of the ninth century. 

In that uncritical age the documents were received by everybody as authentic. 
The papal party effectively quoted them in support of their largest claims for the 
Roman see. They are now acknowledged by all scholars, Catholic as well as Prot- 
estant, to have been forged. Laurentius Valla (1406-145 7), one of the greatest of 
the humanists (sec. 671), was the first to demonstrate the real character of the 
Donation of Constantine. 



& 



CHAPTER XXXIX 
THE FUSION OF LATIN AND TEUTON 

501. Introductory. — The conversion of the barbarians and the 
development in Western Christendom of the central authority of 
the Papacy prepared the way for the introduction among the 
northern races of the arts and the culture of Rome, and contrib- 
uted greatly to hasten in Italy, Spain, and Gaul the fusion into a 
single people of the Latins and the Teutons, of which important 
matter we shall treat in the present chapter. We shall tell how 
these two races, upon the soil of the old Empire in the West, inter- 
mingled their blood, their languages, their laws, their usages and 
customs, to form new peoples, new tongues, and new institutions. 

502. The Romance Nations! — In some districts the barbarian 
invaders and the Roman provincials were kept apart for a long 
time by the bitter antagonism of race, and by a sense of injury 
on the one hand and a feeling of disdainful superiority on the 
other. But for the most part the Teutonic intruders and the 
Latin-speaking inhabitants of Italy, Spain, and France very soon 
began freely to mingle their blood by family alliances. 

It is quite impossible to say what proportion the Teutons bore 
to the Romans. Of course the proportion varied in the different 
countries. In none of the countries named, however, was it large 
enough to absorb the Latinized population ; on the contrary, the 
barbarians were themselves absorbed, yet not without changing 
very essentially the body into which they were incorporated. 
Thus about the end of the fourth century everything in Italy, 
Spain, and France — dwellings, cities, dress, customs, language, 
laws, soldiers — reminds us of Rome. A little later and a great 
change has taken place. The barbarians have come in. For a 
time we see everywhere, jostling each other in the streets and 
markets, crowding each other in the theaters and courts, kneel- 
ing together in the churches, the former Romanized subjects of 

353 



354 THE FUSION OF LATIN AND TEUTON 

the Empire and their uncouth Teutonic conquerors. But by the 
close of the ninth century, to speak in very general terms, the 
two elements have become quite intimately blended, and a cen- 
tury or two later Roman and Teuton have alike disappeared, and 
we are introduced to Italians, Spaniards, and Frenchmen. These 
we call Romance nations, because at base they are Roman. 

503. The Formation of the Romance Languages. — During the 
five centuries of their subjection to Rome, the natives of Spain 
and Gaul forgot their barbarous dialects and came to speak a cor- 
rupt Latin. Now, in exactly the same way that the dialects of the 
Celtic tribes of Gaul and of the Celtiberians of Spain had given 
way to the more refined speech of the Romans did the rude lan- 
guages of the Teutons yield to the more cultured speech of the 
Roman provincials. In the course of two or three centuries after 
their entrance into the Empire, Goths, Lombards, Burgundians, 
and Franks had, in a large measure, dropped their own tongue 
and were speaking that of the people they had subjected. 

But of course this provincial Latin underwent a great change 
upon the lips of the mixed descendants of the Romans and 
Teutons. Owing to the absence of a common popular literature, 
the changes that took place in one country did not exactly cor- 
respond to those going on in another. Hence, in the course of 
time, we find different dialects springing up, and by about the 
ninth century the Latin has virtually disappeared as a spoken 
language, and its place has been usurped by what will be known 
as the Italian, Spanish, and French languages, all more or less 
resembling the ancient Latin, and all called Romance tongues, 
because children of the old Roman speech. 

504. The Personal Character of the Teutonic Laws. — The laws 
of the barbarians were generally personal instead of territorial, as 
with us ; that is, instead of all the inhabitants of a given country 
being subject to the same laws, there were different ones for the 
different classes of society. The Latins, for instance, were sub- 
ject in private law only to the old Roman code, while the Teu- 
tons lived under the tribal rules and regulations which they had 
brought with them from beyond the Rhine and the Danube. 



ORDEALS 355 

Even among themselves the Teutons knew nothing of the 
modern legal maxim that all should stand equal before the law. 
The penalty inflicted upon the evil doer depended not upon the 
nature of his crime but upon his rank or that of the party injured. 
Thus slaves and serfs were beaten and put to death for minor 
offenses, while a freeman might atone for any crime, even for 
murder, by the payment of a fine, the amount of the penalty 
being determined by the rank of the victim. 

505. Ordeals. — The agencies relied upon by the Germans to 
ascertain the guilt or innocence of accused persons show in how 
rude a state the administration of justice among them was. One 
very common method of proof was by what were called ordeals, 
in which the question was submitted to the judgment of God. 
Of these the chief were the ordeal by fire, the ordeal by water, 
and the wager of battle} 

The ordeal by fire consisted in taking in the hand a piece of 
red-hot iron, or in walking blindfolded with bare feet over a row 
of hot plowshares laid lengthwise at irregular distances. If the per- 
son escaped unharmed, his innocence was held to be established. 
Another way of performing the fire ordeal was by running through 
the flames of two fires built close together, or by walking over live 
brands ; hence the phrase " to haul over the coals." 

The ordeal by water was of two kinds, by hot water and by 
cold. In the hot-water ordeal the accused person thrust his arm 
into boiling water, and if no hurt was visible upon the arm three 
days after the operation, the party was considered guiltless. When 
we speak of one's being "in hot water," we use an expression 
which had its origin in this ordeal. 

In the cold-water trial the suspected person was thrown into 
a stream or pond : if he floated, he was held guilty; if he sank, 
innocent. The water, it was believed, would reject the guilty, 
but receive the innocent into its bosom. The practice common 
in Europe until a very recent date of trying supposed witches by 

1 The wager of battle is by some writers treated as a distinct form of trial ; but 
being an appeal to the decision of Heaven, it rested on the same principle as the trials 
by fire and water, and consequently is properly given a place among the ordeals. 



35^ 



THE FUSION OF LATIN AND TEUTON 



throwing them into a pond of water to see whether they would 
sink or float, grew out of this superstition. 

The trial by combat, or wager of battle, was a solemn judicial 
duel. It was resorted to in the belief that God would give vic- 
tory to the right. Naturally it was a favorite mode of trial among 
a people who found their chief delight in fighting. Even the 
judge in some cases resorted to it to maintain the authority and 

dignity of his court. 
To a person who had 
disregarded a sum- 
mons the judge would 
send a challenge in 
this form : "I sent 
for thee, and thou 
didst not think it 
worth thy while to 
come; I demand 
therefore satisfac- 
tion for this thy con- 
tempt." 

The ordeal was 
frequently performed 
by deputy, that is, 
one person for hire 
or for the sake of 
friendship would 
undertake it for 
another ; hence the expression " to go through fire and water to 
serve one." Especially was such substitution common in the judi- 
cial duel, as women and ecclesiastics were generally forbidden to 
appear personally in the lists. 

The champions, as the deputies were called, became in time 
a regular class in society, like the gladiators in ancient Rome. 
Religious houses and chartered towns hired champions at a 
regular salary to defend all the cases to which they might become 
a party. 




Fig. 104. — Trial by Combat. (From a manu- 
script of the fifteenth century; after Lacroix) 



THE REVIVAL OF THE ROMAN LAW 357 

506. The Revival of the Roman Law Now the barbarian law 

system, if such it can be called, the character of which we have 
merely suggested by the preceding illustrations, gradually dis- 
placed the Roman law in all those countries where the two sys- 
tems at first existed alongside each other, save in Italy and 
Southern France, where the provincials greatly outnumbered the 
invaders. But the admirable jurisprudence of Rome was bound 
to assert its superiority. About the close of the eleventh century 
there was a great revival in the study of the Roman law as 
embodied in the Justinian code, and in the course of a century 
or two this became either the groundwork or a strong modifying 
element in the law systems of almost all the peoples of Europe. 

What took place may be illustrated by reference to the fate of 
the Teutonic languages in Gaul, Italy, and Spain. As the barbarian 
tongues, after maintaining a place in those countries for two or 
three centuries, at length gave place to the superior Latin, which 
became the basis of the new Romance languages, so now in the 
domain of law the barbarian maxims and customs, though holding 
their place more persistently, likewise finally give way, almost 
everywhere and in a greater or less degree, to the more excellent 
law system of the Empire. Rome must fulfill her destiny and 
give laws to the nations. 

Selections from the Sources. — Henderson, Select Historical Docu- 
ments, pp. 176-189, "The Salic Law," and pp. 314-319, "Formula Litur- 
gicce in Use at Ordeals." Lee, Source-Book, chap, v, "Anglo-Saxon Laws." 
Translations and Reprints, vol. iv, No. 4, "Ordeals," etc. 

Secondary Works. — Emerton, E., Introduction to the Middle Ages, 
chap, viii, " Germanic Ideas of Law." Lea, H. C, Superstition and Force : 
Essays on the Wager of Law, the Wager of Battle, the Ordeal and Torture ; 
invaluable to the student of primitive culture. Munro, D. C, and Sel- 
LERY, G. C, MedicBval Civilization, pp. 310-325. 

Topics for Class Reports. — ■ 1. The formation of the Romance lan- 
guages. 2. Weregild. 3. Ordeals. 4. The influence of the Roman law 
upon the law systems of Europe. 



CHAPTER XL 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST 

507. The Era of Justinian (a.d. 527-565). — During the fifty 
years immediately following the fall of Rome, the Eastern em- 
perors struggled hard and sometimes doubtfully to withstand the 
waves of the barbarian inundation which constantly threatened to 
overwhelm Constantinople with the same awful calamities that had 
befallen the Imperial City of the West. Had the New Rome — the 
destined refuge for a thousand years of Grseco-Roman learning 
and culture — also gone down at this time before the storm, the 
loss to the cause of civilization would have been incalculable. 

Fortunately, in the year 527, there ascended the Eastern throne 
a prince of unusual ability, to whom fortune gave a general of such 
rare genius that his name has been allotted a place in the short list 
of the great commanders of the world. Justinian was the name of 
the prince, and Belisarius that of the soldier. The sovereign has 
given name to the period, which is called after him the " Era of 
Justinian." 

508. Justinian as the Restorer of the Empire and " The Lawgiver 
of Civilization"; Calamities of his Reign. — One of the most 
important matters in the reign of Justinian is what is termed the 
" Imperial Restoration," by which is meant the recovery from the 
barbarians of several of the provinces of the West upon which 
they had seized. Africa, as we have seen (sec. 477), was first 
wrested from the Vandals. Italy was next recovered from the 
Goths and again made a part of the Roman Empire (a.d. 553). 
It was governed from Ravenna by an imperial officer who bore 
the title of Exarch. Besides recovering Africa and Italy from 
the barbarians, Justinian also reconquered from the Visigoths the 
southeastern part of Spain. 

But that which gives Justinian's reign a greater distinction than 
any conferred upon it by the achievements of his generals was 

358 



THE REIGN OF JUSTINIAN 



359 



the collection and publication by him of the Corpus Juris Civitts, 
the " Body of the Roman Law." This work embodied all the law 
knowledge of the ancient Romans, and was the most precious 
legacy of Rome to the world. 1 In causing its publication Justinian 
earned the title of " The Lawgiver of Civilization." 

Although the reign of Justinian was in many respects auspicious 
and brilliant, still it was for the Empire a time of almost unpar- 
alleled woes and sufferings. Among the calamitous events of the 
period a prominent place must be given the seditions at Constan- 
tinople and the attendant destruction of property and loss of life. 




SSepti 



CorsioafL V-2^Si ... 




h 



La S e ^ SiHlv M? *Ssg^^; ^^JEt)he3US Tatgii^^i- ■ V^~/ 



^JSarthage 





The Roman Empire under Justinian 

The parties or factions indulging in these disorders rose out of the 
chariot races of the circus. These games possessed a strange and 
fatal fascination for the populace of the capital, such as the glad- 
iatorial spectacles had had for the debased multitudes of Old 
Rome. The people became divided into two leading factions, 
known as the Blues and the Greens. These factions carried their 
rivalries into all the relations of life, political and religious. Often 
they indulged in unseemly disturbances in the circus, even in the 
presence of the Emperor himself. In the year 532 there broke 
out what is known as the " Nika " riot, during which a large part 
of the city was reduced to ashes. The mob was finally enticed 



1 See sec. 459. 



*S J^ 'M/C v * 



360 THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST 

within the Hippodrome, where it was set upon by the soldiers of 
Belisarius and thirty-five thousand of the rioters were slain. 

In the year 542 an awful pestilence, bred probably in Egypt, 
fell upon the Empire and did not wholly cease its ravages until 
about fifty years later. This plague was the most terrible scourge 
of which history has any knowledge, save perhaps the so-called 
Black Death, which afflicted Europe in the fourteenth century 
(sec. 626). It is believed to have carried off one third of the 
population of the Empire. 

509. The Reign of Heraclius (a.d. 610-641). — For half a cen- 
tury after the death of Justinian the annals of the Eastern Roman 
Empire are unimportant. Then we reach the reign of Heraclius, 
a prince about whose worthy name gather matters of significance 
in world history. 

About this time Chosroes II, king of Persia, wrested from the 
hands of the Eastern emperors the fortified cities that guarded 
the Euphratean frontier and overran all Syria, Egypt, and Asia 
Minor. For many years Heraclius battled heroically for the in- 
tegrity of the Empire. The struggle between the two rivals was at 
last decided by a terrible combat known as the battle of Nineveh 
(a.d. 627). The Persian army was almost annihilated. Grief or 
violence ended the life of Chosroes. With his successor, Heraclius 
negotiated a treaty which restored the earlier boundaries of the 
Roman dominions. 

A few years after this the Arabs, of whom we shall tell in the 
following chapter, entered upon their surprising career of conquest, 
which in a short time completely changed the face of the entire 
East. Heraclius himself lived to see — so cruel are the vicissi- 
tudes of fortune — the very provinces which he had recovered 
from the fire worshipers in the possession of the followers of the 
Arabian Prophet. 

The conquests of the Arabs cut off from the Empire those prov- 
inces that had the smallest Greek element, and thus rendered 
the population subject to the Emperor more homogeneous, more 
thoroughly Greek. The Roman element disappeared, and though 
the government still retained the imperial character impressed 



THE EMPIRE'S SERVICES TO CIVILIZATION 361 

upon it by the conquerors of the world, the court of Constantinople 
became Greek in tone, spirit, and manners. Hence, instead of 
longer applying to the Empire the designation Roman, many his- 
torians from this on call it the Greek or Byzantine Empire. 

510. Services rendered European Civilization by the Roman 
Empire in the East. 2 — The later Roman Empire rendered such 
eminent services to the European world that it justly deserves 
an important place in universal history. First, as a military out- 
post it held the Eastern frontier of European civilization for a 
thousand years against Asiatic barbarism. 

Second, it was the keeper for centuries of the treasures of 
ancient civilization and the instructor of the new Western nations 
in law, in government and administration, in literature, in paint- 
ing, in architecture, and in the industrial arts. 

Third, it kept alive the imperial idea and principle, and gave 
this fruitful idea and this molding principle back to the West in 
the time of Charlemagne. Without the later Roman Empire of 
the East there would never have been a Romano-German Empire 
of the West (sec. 532). 

Fourth, it was the teacher of religion and civilization to the Slavic 
races of Eastern Europe. Russia forms part of the civilized world 
to-day largely by virtue of what she received from New Rome. 

Secondary Works. — Gibbon, chaps, xl-xliv ; on the reign of Justinian. 
Chap, xliv deals with Roman jurisprudence. Oman, C, The Story of the 
Byzantine Empire, chaps, iv— xi. Hodgkin, T., Italy and her Invaders, 
vol. iv, " The Imperial Restoration." Rawlinson, G., The Seventh Great 
Oriental Monarchy, chap. xxiv. Encyclopcedia Britannica, article on Justin- 
ian by James Bryce. Bury, J. B., History of the Later Roman Empire, 
2 vols. ; a work of superior scholarship. Bemont, C, and Monod, G., 
Mediaeval Europe, chap. viii. Harrison, F., Byzantine History in the 
Early Middle Ages ; a brilliant lecture, which summarizes the results of 
the latest studies in the field indicated. Munro, D. C, and Sellery, 
G. C, Mediaeval Civilization, pp. 87-113 and 212-223. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The recovery of Italy. 2. Belisarius. 
3. Introduction into Europe of the silk industry. 4. Justinian as a builder. 
5. The Code of Justinian. 6. The closing by Justinian of the schools of 
Athens. 

2 Bury's History of the Later Roman Empire, vol. ii, chap. xiv. 



CHAPTER XLI 
THE RISE OF ISLAM 

511. The Attack from the South upon Ancient Civilization. — 

We have seen the German barbarians of the North descend upon 
and wrest from the Roman Empire all its provinces in the West. 
We are now to watch a similar attack made upon the Empire by 
the Arabs of the South, and to see wrested from the emperors of 
the East a large part of the lands still remaining under their rule. 1 

512. The Arabs. — The Arabs, or Saracens, who are now about to 
play their surprising part in history, are, after the Hebrews and 
the Phoenicians, the most important people of the Semitic race. 
They are divided into two distinct classes, — dwellers in towns 
and dwellers in tents. It is to the latter class alone that the 
term Bedouins is properly applied. 

Secure in their inaccessible deserts, the Arabs have never as a 
nation bowed their necks to a foreign conqueror, although por- 
tions of the Arabian peninsula have been repeatedly subjugated 
by different invaders. 

513. The Religious Condition of Arabia before Mohammed 

Before the reforms of Mohammed the Arabs were idolaters. Their 
holy city was Mecca. Here was the ancient and most revered 
shrine of the Kaaba, 2 where was preserved a sacred black stone 
that was believed to have been given by an angel to Abraham. 
To this Meccan shrine pilgrimages were made from the most 
remote parts of Arabia. 

But though polytheism was the prevailing religion of Arabia, 
still there were in the land many followers of other faiths. The 
Jews especially were to be found in some parts of the peninsula 
in great numbers, having been driven from Palestine by the 
Roman persecutions. From them the Arab teachers had been 

1 The student should make a careful study of the maps after pp. 336 and 366. 

2 So named from its having the shape of a cube. 

. 362 



MOHAMMED 



363 



made acquainted with the doctrine of one sole God. From the 
numerous Christian converts dwelling among them they had 
learned something of the doctrines of Christianity. It was from 
the Jews and Christians, doubtless, that Mohammed learned many 
of the doctrines that he taught. 

514. Mohammed. — Mohammed, the great Prophet of the Arabs, 
was born in the holy city of Mecca, probably in the year a.d. 570. 
He sprang from the distinguished tribe of the Koreish, the custo- 
dians of the sacred shrine of the Kaaba. In his early years he 







Fig. 105. — The Kaaba at Mecca 

was a shepherd and a watcher of flocks by night, as the great 
religious teachers Moses and David had been before him. Later 
he became a merchant and a camel driver. 

Mohammed possessed a soul that was early and deeply stirred 
by the contemplation of those themes that ever attract the reli- 
gious mind. He declared that he had visions in which the angel 
Gabriel appeared to him and made to him revelations which he 
was commanded to make known to his fellow-men. The starting 
point of the new faith which he was to teach was this : There is 
but one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet. 

For a long time Mohammed endeavored to gain adherents 
merely by persuasion ; but such was the incredulity which he 



364 THE RISE OF ISLAM 

everywhere met that at the end of three years of apostolic labors 
his disciples numbered only forty persons. 

515. The Hegira (a.d. 622). —The teachings of Mohammed at 
last aroused the anger of a powerful party among the Koreish, and 
they began to persecute him and his followers. To escape these 
persecutions Mohammed fled to the neighboring city of Medina. 
This Hegira, or Flight, as the word signifies, occurred a.d. 622, and 
was considered by the Moslems as such an important event in the 
history of their religion that they adopted it as the beginning of a 
new era, and from it still continue to reckon historical dates. 

516. Mohammed at Medina ; Beginning of the Holy Wars of 
Islam. — At this time Medina was merely a cluster of clan vil- 
lages on an oasis of the desert. Bitter feuds divided the clans, 
and the community was in a state of genuine Arab anarchy. 
Mohammed at once assumed the functions of an arbiter and law- 
giver. He framed for the community a remarkable charter or 
constitution, which united the warring clans into a little common- 
wealth, — the nucleus of the great Arabian Empire. His govern- 
ment was a theocracy, like that of ancient Israel. Mohammed 
was not now, as while at Mecca, simply a prophet, but a legislator, 
judge, and king. 

As chief or king, Mohammed, like his prototype David, planned 
and led border raids and military campaigns. The year after the 
Hegira he sent out an expedition to intercept a caravan of the 
Koreish and to make it a prize. This was in strict accord with 
Arab rule and custom, for the Koreish in expelling Mohammed 
from Mecca and in attempting to kill him had established a state 
of war between him and themselves. This marauding soon led to 
a pitched battle (the so-called battle of Bedr, a.d. 624) between 
the Meccans and the followers of Mohammed, which resulted in 
a signal victory for the Moslems. This was the beginning of the 
holy wars of Islam. 3 

3 Mohammed about this time gave his followers the following revelation, which 
had great influence in securing for early Islam its remarkable military successes : 
"And those who are slain in God's cause, their works shall not go wrong; He . . _ 
will make them enter into Paradise which He has told them of." — The Koran, 
sura xlvii, 5 (Palmer's trans.). 



CAPTURE OF MECCA 365 

517. Capture of Mecca ; Arabia acknowledges Mohammed as a 
True Prophet. — In the tenth year of the Hegira, the Meccans 
having violated a truce which they had entered into with the new 
state at Medina, Mohammed at the head of an army of ten thou- 
sand Bedouins marched against Mecca and captured the city 
almost without a blow. The Arabian tribes now almost unani- 
mously turned to Mohammed as a true prophet, and he who had 
been once rejected now became the spiritual and military head of 
the innumerable Arab clans, whom the intense ardor of religious 
enthusiasm had welded into a mighty brotherhood and nation. 

The same year that marks the capture of Mecca by Mohammed 
marks also his death. He was buried at Medina, and his tomb there 
is to-day a most sacred place of pilgrimage for the Moslem world. 

518. The Origin of the Koran. — Before going on to trace the 
conquests of the successors of Mohammed, we must try to form 
some idea of the religion of the great Prophet. 

The doctrines of Mohammedanism, or Islam, which means 
" submission to God," are contained in the Koran, which is 
believed by the orthodox to have been written from all eternity 
on tablets in heaven. From time to time the apostle recited 4 
to his disciples portions of the " heavenly book " as its contents 
were revealed to him in his dreams and visions. These com- 
munications were held in the "breasts of men," or were written 
down upon bones, pieces of pottery, and the ribs of palm leaves. 
Soon after the death of the Prophet these scraps of writing were 
religiously collected, supplemented by tradition, and then arranged 
chiefly according to length. Thus came into existence the sacred 
book of Islam. 

519. The Teachings of the Koran. — The fundamental doctrine 
of Islam is the unity of God: "There is no God save Allah" 
echoes through the Koran. To this is added the equally binding 
declaration that " Mohammed is the Prophet of Allah." 

The Koran inculcates four cardinal virtues. The first of these 
is prayer : five times every day must the believer turn his face 

4 Palmer in the introduction to his translation of the Koran says that it is 
" probable Mohammed could neither read nor write." 



366 THE RISE OF ISLAM 

towards Mecca and pray. The second is almsgiving. The third 
is keeping the fast of Ramadan, which lasts a whole month. The 
fourth duty is making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Every person who 
can possibly do so is required to make this journey. 

To the faithful the Koran promises a heaven filled with every 
sensual delight, with flowers and fruits and bright-eyed maidens 
(houris) of ravishing beauty, and threatens unbelievers and the 
doers of evil with the torments of a hell filled with every horror 
of flame and demon. 5 

520. The Conquest of Persia, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa. — 
For exactly one century after the death of Mohammed the caliphs 
or successors of the Prophet 6 were engaged in an almost unbroken 
series of conquests. Persia was subjugated and the authority 
of the Koran was established throughout the land of the Zend- 
Avesta. Syria was wrested from the Eastern Roman Empire and 
Asia Minor was overrun. Egypt and North Africa, the latter just 
recently delivered from the Vandals, were also snatched from the 
hands of the Byzantine emperors. 

By the conquest of Persia Zoroastrianism, a religion with a 
great past, was, as a force in history, destroyed. 7 By the con- 
quest of Syria the birthplace of Christianity was lost to the Chris- 
tian world. By the conquest of North Africa lands whose history 
for a thousand years had been intertwined with that of the oppo- 
site shores of Europe, and which at one time seemed destined to 
share in the career of freedom and progress opening to the peoples 
of that continent, were drawn back into the fatalism and the 

5 Islam is not based upon the Koran alone. It rests in part upon what is known 
as the Sunna, that is, a great body of traditions of the Prophet's sayings, — ■ those 
not forming a part of the sacred book, — his actions, practices, and decisions handed 
down from his immediate companions. 

■ 6 Abu-Bekr (a.d. 632-634), Mohammed's father-in-law, was the first caliph. He 
was followed by Omar (a.d. 634-644), Othman (a.d. 644-655), and Ali (a.d. 655- 
661), all of whom fell by the hands of assassins, for from the very first dissensions 
were rife among the followers of the Prophet. 

"' The number of Guebers, or fire worshipers, in Persia at the present time is 
about 100,000, found for the most part at Yezd and in the province of Kerman. A 
larger number may be counted in Western India, — the descendants of the Guebers 
who fled from Persia at the time of the Arabian invasion. They are there called 
Parsees, from the land whence they came. 



ATTACKS UPON CONSTANTINOPLE 367 

stagnation of the East. From being an extension of Europe they 
became once more an extension of Asia. 

521. Attacks upon Constantinople. — Thus in only a little more 
than fifty years from the death of Mohammed his standard had 
been carried by the lieutenants of his successors through Asia to 
the Hellespont on the one side and across Africa to the Straits 
of Gibraltar on the other. We may expect -to see the Saracens 
at one or both of these points attempt the invasion of Europe. 

The first attempts were made in the East, where the Arabs 
repeatedly endeavored, but without success, to wrest Constanti- 
nople from the hands of the Eastern emperors. The check that 
the Saracens received before Constantinople was doubtless next 
in importance for European civilization to the check given their 
conquering hordes a little later in France at the great battle of 
Tours. 

522. The Conquest of Spain (a.d. 711). — While the Moslems 
were thus being repulsed from Europe at its eastern extremity, 
the gates of the continent were opened to them — legend says by 
treachery — at the western, and they gained a foothold in Spain. 
At the great battle of Xeres (a.d. 711) the last of the Visigothic 
kings was hopelessly defeated, and all the peninsula save some 
mountainous regions in the northwest quickly submitted to the 
invaders. By this conquest some of the fairest provinces of Spain 
were lost to Christendom for a period of eight hundred years. 

No sooner had the subjugation of the country been effected 
than multitudes of colonists from Arabia, Syria, and North Africa 
crowded into the peninsula, until in a short time the provinces 
of Seville, Cordova, Toledo, and Granada became predominantly 
Arabic in dress, manners, language, and religion. 

523. Invasion of France; Battle of Tours (a.d. 732). — Four 
or five years after the conquest of Spain the Saracens crossed the 
Pyrenees and established themselves upon the plains of Gaul. 
This advance of the Moslem host beyond the northern wall of 
Spain was viewed with the greatest alarm by all Christendom. It 
looked as though the followers of Mohammed would soon possess 
all the continent. As Draper pictures it, the Crescent, lying in a 



368 THE RISE OF ISLAM 

vast semicircle upon the northern shore of Africa and the curving 
coast of Asia, with one horn touching the Bosporus and the other 
the Straits of Gibraltar, seemed about to round to the full and 
overspread all Europe. 

In the year 732, just one hundred years after the death of the 
Prophet, the Franks, under their leader Charles Martel, and their 
allies met the Moslems upon the plains of Tours in the center of 
Gaul and committed to the issue of a single battle the fate of 
Christendom and the future course of history. The Arabs suffered 
an overwhelming defeat and soon withdrew behind the Pyrenees. 

The young Christian civilization of Western Europe was thus 
delivered from an appalling danger such as had not threatened it 
since the fearful days of Attila and the Huns. 

524. Golden Age of the Caliphate at Bagdad. — For about thirty 
years after the death of Mohammed, Medina continued to be the 
capital of the Arabian Empire ; then Damascus was the seat of 
the government for nearly a century, 8 after which, a new dynasty 
arising, a new capital, Bagdad, was founded on the Lower Tigris, 
in ancient Babylonia. 

The golden age of the caliphate of Bagdad covered the latter 
part of the eighth and the ninth century of our era, and was illus- 
trated by the reigns of such princes as Al-Mansur (a.d. 754-775) 
and the renowned Harun-al-Rashid (a.d. 786-809). During this 
period science and philosophy and literature were most assid- 
uously cultivated by the Arabian scholars, and the court of the 
caliphs presented in culture and luxury a striking contrast 
to the rude and barbarous courts of the kings and princes of 
Western Christendom. 

525. The Dismemberment of the Caliphate. — "At the close of 
the first century of the Hegira," writes Gibbon, " the caliphs 

8 The caliphs who ruled from Damascus are known as the Ommeiades. In secur- 
ing their power they had caused the murder of the two sons of Ali, Hassan and 
Hosain. These youths were ever regarded as martyrs by the friends of the house 
of Ali, and the schism caused by their cruel death has never been healed. The 
Mohammedans of Persia, who are known as Shiahs, are the leaders of the party of 
Ali, while the Turks and Arabs, known as Sunnites, are the chief adherents of the 
opposite party. 



THE CIVILIZATION OF ARABIAN ISLAM 369 

were the most potent and absolute monarchs of the globe." But 
in a short time their extended empire, through the quarrels of 
sectaries and the ambitions of rival aspirants for the honors of 
the caliphate, was broken in fragments, and from three capitals — 
from Bagdad upon the Tigris, from Cairo upon the Nile, and 
from Cordova upon the Guadalquivir — were issued the commands 
of three rival caliphs, each of whom was regarded by his adherents 
as the sole rightful spiritual and civil successor of Mohammed. 
All, however, held the great Prophet in the same reverence, all 
maintained with equal zeal the sacred character of the Koran, and 
all prayed with their faces turned toward the holy city of Mecca. 

526. The Civilization of Arabian Islam The Saracens were 

coheirs of antiquity with the Germans. They made especially 
their own the scientific 9 accumulations of the ancient civiliza- 
tions and bequeathed them to Christian Europe. These elements 
of civilization they added to and enriched, and in several of the 
countries of which they took possession, especially in Babylonia 
and in Spain, there developed a civilization which in some respects 
far surpassed any that the world had yet seen. 

The Moslem law system, the basis of which is found in the 
Koran, is one of the most influential and widely obeyed systems 
of laws and regulations that any race or civilization has developed. 
Since the system embraces religious as well as civil matters, it 
is in some respects like the Mosaic code, from which it freely 
borrowed. 

In the lighter forms of literature — romance and poetry — the 
Arabs produced much that possesses a high degree of excellence. 
The inimitable tales of the Arabian Nights, besides being a valu- 
able commentary on Arabian life and manners at the time of the 
culmination of Oriental culture at the court of Bagdad, forms 
also an addition to the imperishable portion of the literature of 
the world. 

The physical sciences were also pursued by the Arabian schol- 
ars with great eagerness and with considerable success. From the 

9 Gibbon affirms that no Greek poet, orator, or historian was ever translated into 
Arabic. See Decline and Fall, chap. lii. 



37Q 



THE RISE OF ISLAM 



Greeks and the Hindus they received the germs of astronomy, 
geometry, arithmetic, algebra, medicine, botany, and other sci- 
ences. Almost all of the sciences that thus came into their hands 
were improved and enriched by them, and then transmitted to Euro- 
pean scholars. 10 They made medicine for the first time a true 
science. They devised and gave to Europe what is known from 
them as the Arabic or decimal system of notation. 11 

All this literary and scientific activity naturally found expression 
in the establishment of schools, universities, and libraries. In all 
the great cities of the Arabian Empire, as at Bagdad, Cairo, and 
Cordova, centuries before Europe could boast anything beyond 
cathedral or monastic schools, great universities were drawing to- 
gether vast crowds of eager young Moslems and creating an atmos- 
phere of learning and refinement. The famous university at Cairo, 
which has at the present day an attendance of several thousand 
students, is a survival from the great days of Arabian Islam. 

In the erection of mosques and other public edifices the Arab 
architects developed a new and striking style of architecture, — 
some of the most beautiful specimens of which are preserved to 
us at Cordova and Granada, in Spain, — a style which has given 
to modern builders some of their finest models. 

527. The Evil and the Good in Islam. — In some of its teachings 
and institutions Islam is a system unfavorable to social progress. 
In opposition to Christianity, it tolerates polygamy 12 and places 
no restraint upon divorce, thus destroying the sacredness of family 
life. In authorizing the faithful to make slaves of their captives 
in holy wars, it legalizes slavery ; Mohammedan countries are the 

10 What Europe received in science from Arabian sources is shown by such words 
as alchemy, alcohol, alembic, algebra, alkali, almanac, azimuth, chemistry, elixir, 
zenith, and nadir. To how great an extent the chief Arabian cities became the man- 
ufacturing centers of the mediaeval world is indicated by the names which these places 
have given to various textile fabrics and other articles. Thus muslin comes from 
Mosul, on the Tigris, damask from Damascus, and gauze from Gaza. Damascus and 
Toledo blades tell of the proficiency of the Arab workmen in metallurgy. 

11 The figures or numerals, with the exception of the zero symbol, employed in 
their system they seem to have borrowed from India. 

12 The Koran (sura iv, 3) allows the believer to take "two, or three, or four 
wives, and not more." By a special dispensation (sura xxxiii, 49) Mohammed was 
allowed to take a larger number. At one time the Prophet had ten wives. 



THE EVIL AND THE GOOD IN ISLAM 371 

main strongholds of slavery at the present time. It also fosters 
religious intolerance ; the Moslem is forbidden by his religion to 
grant equality to unbelievers. 

Islam, however, inculcates many inspiring truths and recom- 
mends some great virtues. Like Christianity, it teaches the unity 
of God, immortality, and rewards and punishments after death. 
These doctrines render it immeasurably superior to fetichism or 
to polytheism, and have made it a great force for the uplift of 
multitudes of idolatrous tribes in Asia and Africa. 

Among the leading virtues inculcated by Islam is that of tem- 
perance. The Koran forbids positively to the believer the use of 
wine and inferentially of all strong drinks. To this prohibition is 
attributable the fact that drunkenness is less common and open 
in Mohammedan than in Christian lands. 

Finally, in forming our estimate of Islam we should carefully 
bear in mind that the religion as held and practiced by many 
Mohammedan peoples to-day is a very degenerate form of the 
Islamic faith when compared with that held and practiced by the 
Arabs among whom it first arose. Mohammedanism, like Chris- 
tianity, was at its best in what we may call its Apostolic Age. 

Selections from the Sources. ■ — The Koran is our chief source for a 
knowledge of Islam as a religion. The translation by Palmer, in Sacred 
Books of the East, is the best. The Speeches and Table- Talk of the Prophet 
Mohammed (trans, by Stanley Lane-Poole). 

Secondary Works. — Muir, W., The Coran, The Life of Mohammed, 
and The Rise and Decline of Islam. Smith, R. B., Mohammed and Moham- 
medanism ; has a short bibliography. Irving, W., Mahomet and his Suc- 
cessors. Gibbon, The Decline and Fall, chaps. 1-lii. Carlyle, T., Heroes 
and Hero-Worship, Lect. ii, "The Hero as Prophet." Freeman, E. A., 
History and Conquests of the Saracens ; a rapid sketch by a master. Gilman, 
A., The Saracens from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Bagdad. Syed 
Ameer Ali, The Spirit of Islam : or the Life and Teachings of Mohammed ; 
by a Mohammedan barrister at law. Also the same author's Short History 
of the Saracens. Munro, D. C., and Sellery, G. C., Medieval Civili- 
zation, pp. 224-239. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The conquest of Egypt. 2. The caliph 
Harun-al-Rashid. 3. The Arabian Nights. 4. The Moors in Spain. 



CHAPTER XLII 

CHARLEMAGNE AND THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE IN 
THE WEST 

528. Introductory. — We return now to the West. The Franks, 
who with the aid of their confederates withstood the Saracens on 
the field of Tours and saved Europe from subjection to the 
Koran, are the people that first attract our attention. Charle- 
magne, or Charles the Great, their king, is the imposing figure 
that moves amidst all the events of the times, — indeed, is the 
one who makes the events and renders the period an epoch in 
universal history. 

The story of this era affords the key to very much of the sub- 
sequent history of Western Europe. The mere enumeration of 
the events which are to claim our attention will illustrate the 
important character of the period. We shall tell how the mayors 
of the palace of the Merovingian princes became the actual 
kings of the Franks ; how, through the liberality of the Frankish 
kings, the popes laid the foundations of their temporal sover- 
eignty ; and how Charlemagne restored the Roman Empire in 
the West, and throughout its extended limits, in the fusion of 
things Roman and things Germanic, laid the basis of modern 
civilization. 

529. How Duke Pippin became King of the Franks (a.d. 75 1). - — 
Charles Martel, who saved the Christian civilization of Western 
Europe on the field of Tours, although the real head of the Frank- 
ish nation, was nominally only an officer of the Merovingian court 
(sec. 478). He died without ever having borne the title of king, 
notwithstanding he had exercised all the authority of that office. 

But Charles' son, Pippin III, aspired to the regal title and 
honors. He resolved to depose his titular master and to make 
himself king. Not deeming it wise, however, to do this without 
the sanction of the Pope, he sent an embassy to represent to him 

372 



TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPES 373 

the state of affairs and to solicit his advice. Mindful of recent 
favors that he had received at the hands of Pippin, the Pope gave 
his approval to the proposed change by replying that it seemed 
altogether reasonable that the one who was king in reality should 
be king also in name. This was sufficient. Childeric — such was 
the name of the Merovingian king — was straightway deposed, 
and Pippin, whose own deeds together with those of his illustri- 
ous father had done so much for the Frankish nation and for 
Christendom, was crowned king of the Franks, and thus became 
the first of the Carolingian line, the name of his illustrious son 
Charles (Charlemagne) giving name to the house. 

530. Pippin helps to establish the Temporal Power of the Popes 
(a.d. 756). — In the year a.d. 754 Pope Stephen II, troubled by 
the king of the Lombards, besought Pippin's aid against the bar- 
barian. Pippin, quick to return the favor which the head of the 
Church had rendered him in the securing of his crown, straight- 
way interposed in behalf of the Pope. He descended into Italy 
with an army, expelled the Lombards from their recent con- 
quests, and made a donation to the Pope of the regained lands 1 
(a.d. 756). As a symbol of the gift he laid the keys of Ravenna, 
Rimini, and of many other cities on the tomb of St. Peter. 

This endowment may be regarded as having practically laid 
the basis of the temporal sovereignty of the popes ; for although 
Pope Stephen, as it seems, had already resolved to cast off alle- 
giance to the Eastern Emperor and set up an independent Church 
state, still it is not probable that he could have carried out such 
an enterprise successfully had he not been aided in his project by 
the Frankish king. 

531. Accession of Charlemagne ; his Wars Pippin died in the 

year 768, and his kingdom passed into the hands of his two sons, 
Carloman and Charles, the latter being better known by the name 
he achieved of Charlemagne, or " Charles the Great." Three years 
after the accession of the brothers Carloman died, and Charles 
took possession of his dominions. 

1 The sovereignty of all these lands belonged nominally to the Emperor at Con- 
stantinople. His claims were ignored by Pippin. 



374 CHARLEMAGNE 

During his long reign of nearly half a century Charlemagne 
so extended the boundaries of his dominions that they came to 
embrace the larger part of Western Europe. He made over fifty 
military campaigns, among which were those against the Lom- 
bards, the Saracens, and the Saxons. 

Among the first undertakings of Charlemagne was a campaign 
against the Lombards, whose king, Desiderius, was troubling the 
Pope. Charlemagne wrested from Desiderius all his possessions, 
shut up the unfortunate king in a monastery, and placed on his 
own head the famous " Iron Crown " of the Lombards (sec. 479). 

In the year 778 Charlemagne gathered his warriors for a cru- 
sade against the Mohammedan Moors in Spain. He crossed the 
Pyrenees and succeeded in winning from the Moslems all the 
northeastern corner of the peninsula. These lands thus regained 
for Christendom he made a part of his dominions, under the title 
of the Spanish March. 2 

But by far the greater number of the campaigns of Charlemagne 
were directed against the still pagan Saxons. These people were 
finally reduced to permanent submission and forced to accept 
Charlemagne as their sovereign and Christianity as their religion. 

532. Restoration of the Empire in the West (a.d. 800). — An 
event of seemingly little moment, yet in its influence upon suc- 
ceeding affairs of the very greatest importance, now claims our 
attention. Pope Leo III having called upon Charlemagne for aid 
against a hostile faction at Rome, the king soon appeared in person 
at the capital and punished the disturbers of the peace of the 
Church. The gratitude of Leo led him at this time to make a 
most signal return for the many services of the Frankish king. 
To understand his act a word of explanation is needed. 

For a considerable time a variety of circumstances had been 
fostering a growing feeling of enmity between the Italians and 

2 As Charles was leading his victorious bands back across the Pyrenees, the rear 
of his army, while hemmed in by the walls of the Pass of Roncesvalles, was set upon 
by the wild mountaineers (the Gascons) and cut to pieces before he could give relief. 
Of the details of this event no authentic account has been preserved ; but long after- 
wards, associated with the fabulous deeds of the hero Roland, it formed a favorite 
theme of the tales and songs of the Trouveurs of Northern France (sec. 645). 



RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE 375 

the emperors at Constantinople. Just at this time, by the crime 
of the Empress Irene, who had deposed her son, Constantine VI, 
and put out his eyes that she might have his place, the Byzantine 
throne was vacant, in the estimation of the Italians, who con- 
tended that the crown of the Caesars could not be worn by a 
woman. In view of these circumstances Pope Leo and those 
about him conceived the purpose of taking away from the hereti- 
cal and effeminate Greeks the imperial crown and bestowing it 
upon some strong and orthodox and worthy prince in the West. 

Now among all the Teutonic chiefs of Western Christendom 
there was none who could dispute in claims to the honor with the 
king of the Franks, the representative of a most illustrious house 
and the strongest champion of the young Christianity of the West 
against her pagan foes. Accordingly, as Charlemagne was par- 
ticipating in the solemnities of Christmas Day in the basilica of 
St. Peter at Rome, the Pope approached the kneeling king, and 
placing a crown of gold upon his head proclaimed him Emperor 
and Augustus (a.d. 800). 

The intention of Pope Leo was, by a sort of reversal of the act 
of Constantine the Great, to bring back from the East the seat of 
the imperial court ; but what he really accomplished was a restora- 
tion of the line of emperors in the West, which three hundred and 
twenty-four years before had been ended by Odoacer (sec. 445). 

We say this was what he actually effected ; for the Greeks of 
the East, disregarding wholly what the Roman people and the 
Pope had done, maintained their line of emperors just as though 
nothing had occurred in Italy. So now from this time on for cen- 
turies there were, most of the time, two emperors, one in the East 
and another in the West, each claiming to be the rightful suc- 
cessor of Caesar Augustus. 3 

3 From this time on it will be proper for us to use the terms Western Empire and 
Eastern Empire. These names should not, however, be employed before this time, 
for the two parts of the old Roman Empire were simply administrative divisions of 
a single empire ; but we may properly enough speak of the Roman Empire in the 
West, and the Roman Empire in the East, or of the Western and Eastern emperors. 
What it is very essential to note is, that the restoration of the line of the Western 
emperors actually destroyed the unity of the old Empire, so that from this time on 
until the destruction of the Eastern Empire in 1453, there were, as we have said in 



376 CHARLEMAGNE 

This revival of the Empire in the West was one of the most 
important matters in European history. It gave to the following 
centuries "a great political ideal," which was the counterpart of 
the religious ideal of a universal Church embodied in the Papacy, 
and which was to shape large sections of mediaeval history. 

533. Charles the Great as a Ruler. — Charlemagne must not be 
regarded as a warrior merely. His most noteworthy work was 
that which he effected as a legislator and administrator. He ruled 
his Empire with the constant solicitude of a father. The char- 
acter of his government is revealed by his celebrated Capitularies. 
These were not laws proper, but collections of decrees, decisions, 
and instructions covering matters of every kind, civil and religious, 
public and domestic. They show what were Charlemagne's ideas 
of what his chiefs or his subjects needed in the way of advice, 
suggestion, or command. 

Charlemagne, particularly after his coronation as Emperor, exer- 
cised as careful a superintendence over religious as over civil 
affairs. He called synods or councils of the clergy of his domin- 
ions, presided at these meetings, and addressed to abbots and 
bishops fatherly words of admonition, reproof, and exhortation. 

Education was also a matter to which Charlemagne gave zealous 
attention. He was himself from first to last as diligent a student 
as his busy life permitted. He never ceased to be a learner. In 
his old age he tried to learn to write, but found that it was too 
late. Distressed by the dense ignorance all about him, he labored 
to instruct his subjects, lay and clerical, by the establishment of 
schools and the multiplication and dissemination of books through 
the agency of the copyists of the monasteries. He invited from 
England the celebrated Alcuin, one of the finest scholars of the 
age, and with his help organized what became known as the 
Palace School, in which his children and courtiers and he himself 
were pupils. 

534. The Death of Charlemagne (814) ; Results of his Reign. — 
Charlemagne enjoyed the imperial dignity only fourteen years. He 

the text, two rival emperors, each in theory having rightful suzerainty of the whole 
world, whereas the two emperors in Roman times were the co-rulers of a single and 
indivisible world empire. See Bryce's The Holy Roman Empire 



DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE 377 

died in 814. By the almost universal verdict of students of the 
mediaeval period, he has been pronounced the most imposing 
personage that appears between the fall of Rome and the fif- 
teenth century. His greatness has erected an enduring monument 
for itself in his name, the one by which he is best known, — 
Charlemagne. 

Among the results of the reign of Charlemagne we should note 
at least the two following. First, he did for Germany what Caesar 
did for Gaul, — brought this barbarian land within the pale of 
civilization and made it a part of the new-forming Romano- 
German world. 

Second, he kneaded into something like a homogeneous mass 
the various racial elements composing the mixed society of the 
wide regions over which he ruled. Throughout his long and vigor- 
ous reign that fusion of Roman and Teuton of which we spoke in 
an earlier chapter went on apace. He failed indeed to unite the 
various races of his extended dominions in a permanent political 
union, but he did much to create among them those religious, intel- 
lectual, and social bonds which were never afterwards severed. 
From his time on, as it has been concisely expressed, there was 
a Western Christendom. 

535. Division of the Empire; the Treaty of Verdun (843). 
— Like the kingdom of Alexander and that of many another 
great conqueror, the mighty empire of Charlemagne fell to pieces 
soon after his death. " His scepter was the bow of Ulysses, which 
could not be drawn by any weaker hand." 

Charlemagne was followed by his son Lewis, surnamed the 
Pious (814-840). Upon his death fierce contention broke out 
afresh among his surviving sons, Lewis, Charles, and Lothair, 
and myriads of lives were sacrificed in the unnatural strife. 
Finally, by the famous Treaty of Verdun (843), the Empire was 
divided as follows : to Lewis was given the part east of the Rhine, 
the nucleus of the later Germany ; to Charles, the part west of 
the Rhone and the Meuse, one day to become France ; and to 
Lothair, the narrow central strip between these, stretching across 
Europe from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, and including 



378 CHARLEMAGNE 

the rich lands of the lower Rhine, the valley of the Rhone, and the 
larger part of Italy. To Lothair also was given the imperial title. 

This treaty is celebrated, not only because it was the first great 
treaty among the European states, but also on account of its 
marking the divergence from one another, and in some sense the 
origin, of two of the great nations of modern Europe, — Teutonic 
Germany and Romanic France. As shown by the celebrated 
bilingual oath of Strassburg, 4 there had by this time grown up 
in Gaul, through the mixture of the provincial Latin with Ger- 
man elements, a new speech, which was to grow into the French 
tongue, — the firstborn of the Romance languages. 5 

In the year 962 a strong king of Germany, Otto the Great, 
again revived the Empire, which now came to be called the Holy 
Roman Empire. Respecting the great part that the idea of the 
Empire played in subsequent history we shall speak in a later 
chapter (Chapter XLVI). 

Selections from the Sources. — Eginhard (Einhard), Life of the Em- 
peror Karl the Great. Einhard was Charles' confidential friend and sec- 
retary. "Almost all our real, vivifying knowledge of Charles the Great," 
says Hodgkin, " is derived from Einhard, and . . . the Vita Caroli is one of 
the most precious bequests of the early Middle Ages." Translations and 
Reprints, vol. vi, No. 5, " Selections from the Laws of Charles the Great." 

Secondary Works. — Hodgkin, T., Charles the Great, and Mombert, 
J. I., A History of Charles the Great; the first is the best short biography 
in English. BRYCE, J., The Holy Roman Empire, chaps, iv, v, and xxi ; gives 
a clear view of the import of the restoration of the Empire. Emerton, E., 
Introduction to the Middle Ages, chaps, xii-xiv. West, A. F., Alcuin and 
the Rise of the Christian Schools, and Mullinger, J. B., The Schools of 
Charles the Great; for the influence upon the intellectual life of the Middle 
Ages of the schools founded by Charlemagne. Adams, G. B., Civilization 
during the Middle Ages, chap. vii. Davis, H. W. C, Charlejnagne. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Charlemagne and the Saxons. 2. Ro- 
mances connected with Charlemagne's expedition against the Moors in 
Spain. 3. Alcuin and the Palace School. 

4 This was an oath of friendship and mutual fidelity taken by Lewis and Charles 
just before the Treaty of Verdun (in 842). The text of the oath has been preserved 
both in the old German speech and in the new-forming Romance language. It is 
interesting as affording the oldest existing specimens of these languages. 

5 Compare sees. 503 and 644. 



CHAPTER XLIII 



THE NORTHMEN : THE COMING OF THE VIKINGS 



536. The Northern Folk. — Northmen, Norsemen, Scandina- 
vians are different names applied in a general way to the early 
inhabitants of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. For the reason 
that those making settlements in England came for the most 
part from Denmark, the term Danes is often used with the same 
wide application by the English writers. These people formed the 
northern branch of -the Teutonic family. 

For the first eight centuries of our era the Norsemen are prac- 
tically hidden from our view in their remote northern home ; but 
towards the end of the eighth century their black pirat- 
ical crafts are to be seen creeping along the coasts of 




Fig. 106. — A Viking Ship 

It was the custom of the Northmen to bury their dead sea king near the sea in 
his ship and over the spot to raise a great mound of earth. The boat shown 
in the cut was found in 18S0 in a burial mound at Gokstadt, South Norway. 
Its length is 78 feet. From the mode of sepulture it is inferred that the 
mound was raised between a.d. 700 and 1000 

Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and even venturing far up the inlets 
and creeks. Soon all the shores of the countries visited were 
dotted with their stations and settlements. With a foothold once 
secured, fresh bands came, and the stations in time grew into per- 
manent colonies. These marauding expeditions and colonizing 
enterprises did not cease till late in the eleventh century. 

379 



380 THE NORTHMEN 

The most noteworthy characteristic of these Northmen is the 
readiness with which they laid aside their own manners, habits, 
ideas, and institutions, and adopted those of the country in which 
they established themselves. " In Russia they became Russians ; in 
France, Frenchmen; in Italy, Italians; in England, Englishmen." 

537. Colonization of Iceland and Greenland; the Discovery of 
America. — Iceland was settled by the Northmen in the ninth 
century, 1 and about a century later Greenland was discovered and 
colonized. In 1874 the Icelanders celebrated the thousandth 
anniversary of the settlement of their island, an event very like 
our Centennial of 1876. 

America was reached by the Northmen as early as the open- 
ing of the eleventh century; the "Vinland" of their traditions 
was probably some part of the New England coast. Whether 
these first visitors to the continent ever made any settlements in 
the new land is a disputed question. 

538. The Norsemen in Russia While the Norwegians were 

sailing boldly out into the Atlantic and taking possession of the 
isles and coasts of the western seas, the Swedes were pushing their 
crafts across the Baltic and troubling the Finns and Slavs on the 
eastern shore of that sea. Either by right of conquest or through 
the invitation of the contentious Slavonic clans, the renowned 
Scandinavian chieftain Rurik acquired, about the middle of the 
ninth century, kingly dignity, and became the founder of the first 
royal line of Russia. 

539. The Danish Conquest of England. — The Danes began to 
make descents upon the English coast toward the close of the 
eighth century. They were not content with plunder, but, being 
pagans, took special delight in burning the churches and monas- 
teries of the now Christian Anglo-Saxons, or English, as we shall 

l Iceland became the literary center of the Scandinavian world. There grew up 
here a class of scalds, or bards, who, before the introduction of writing, preserved 
and transmitted orally the sagas, or legends, of the Northern races. About the 
middle of the thirteenth century these poems and legends were gathered into col- 
lections known as the Elder or Poetic Edda and the Younger or Prose Edda. 
These are among the most interesting and important of the literary memorials that 
we possess of the early Teutonic peoples. They reflect faithfully the beliefs and 
customs of the Norsemen, and the wild, adventurous spirit of their sea kings. 



SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHMEN IN GAUL 38 1 

hereafter call them. In a short time fully one half of England 
was in their hands. Just when it began to look as though the 
hard-pushed English would be wholly enslaved or driven from the 
island by the heathen intruders, Alfred (871-901), later to be 
known as Alfred the Great, 2 came to the throne of Wessex. He 
finally gained some advantage over the Danes, but could not 
expel them from the island, and by the celebrated Treaty of Wed- 
more (878) gave up to them all the northeastern part of England. 

For a full century following the death of Alfred his successors 
were engaged in a constant struggle to hold in restraint the Danes 
already settled in the land, or to protect their domains from fresh 
invasions. In the end the Danes got the mastery, and Canute, 
king of Denmark, became king of England (1016). For eighteen 
years he reigned in a wise and parental way. Altogether the Danes 
ruled in England about a quarter of a century, and then the old 
English line was restored in the person of Edward the Confessor 
(1042). 

540. Settlement of the Northmen in Gaul. — The Northmen 
began to make piratical descents upon the coasts of Gaul before 
the end of the reign of Charlemagne. The great king had been 
dead only thirty years when these sea rovers ascended the Seine 
and sacked Paris (845). At last the Carolingian king, Charles 
the Simple, did something very like what Alfred the Great had 
done across the Channel only a short time before. He granted 
to Rollo, the leader of the Northmen who had settled at Rouen, 
a large section of country in the north of Gaul, upon condition 
of homage and conversion (912). In a short time the newcomers 
had adopted the language, the manners, and the religion of the 

2 Alfred is the only sovereign of England on whom the title of Great has been con- 
ferred. Perhaps his best claims to this distinction spring from his work as a lawgiver 
and a patron of learning. The code that he made formed the basis of early English 
jurisprudence. Alfred also fostered learning by himself becoming a translator. Here 
we have the beginnings of the prose literature of England. " The mighty roll of the 
prose books that fill her libraries," writes Green, " begins with the translations of 
Alfred, and above all with the Chronicle of his reign." The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 
here alluded to was a minute and chronological record of events, probably begun in 
systematic form in Alfred's reign and continued down to the year 1154. It was kept 
by the monks of different monasteries, and forms one of our most valuable sources 
for early English history. 



382 THE NORTHMEN 

French, and had caught much of their vivacity and impulsiveness, 
without, however, any loss of their own native virtues. This trans- 
formation in them we may conceive as being recorded in their 
transformed name, — Northmen becoming softened into Norman. 
541. Normandy in French History. — The establishment of a 
Scandinavian settlement in Gaul proved a momentous matter, not 
only for the history of the French people, but for the history of 
European civilization as well. This Norse factor was destined to 
be one of the most important of all those various racial elements 
which on the soil of the old Gaul blended to create the richly 
dowered French nation. For many of the most romantic pas- 
sages of her history France is indebted to the adventurous spirit 
of the descendants of these wild rovers of the sea. The knights 
of Normandy lent an added splendor to French knighthood, and 
helped greatly to make France the hearth of chivalry and the 
center of the crusading movement of the eleventh and twelfth 
centuries. Nor was the influence of the incoming of the Scandi- 
navian race felt upon French history alone. Normandy became 
the point of departure of enterprises that had deep and lasting 
consequences for Europe at large. These undertakings had for 
their arena England and the Mediterranean lands. Their results 
were so important and far-reaching that we shall devote to the 
narration of them a subsequent chapter (Chapter XLV). 

Selections from the Sources. — The Story of Burnt Njal (trans, by 
George W. Dasent). An Icelandic saga ; a picture of times and manners. 
Asser, The Life of King Alfred (ed. by W. H. Stevenson). Kendall, 
Source-Book, chap, ii, " England and the Danes." 

Secondary Works. — Keary, C.F., The Vikings in Western Christendom. 
The author depicts the various Viking undertakings as " one phase ... of 
the long struggle between Christianity and the heathenism of the North." 
Pauli, R., The Life of Alfred the Great ; the best life of the great king. 
Green, J. R., The Conquest of England ; all excepting chaps, x and xi. 
Du Chaillu, P. B., The Viking Age, 2 vols.; reflects the life and ideals, 
customs and manners of the Norsemen. Macfadyen, D., Alfred, the West 
Saxon, and Boyesen, H. H., The Story of A T orway ; the opening chapters. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Manners and customs of the North- 
men. 2. The Eddas. 3. Tales and legends of Alfred the Great. 



SECOND PERIOD — THE AGE OF REVIVAL 

(From the Opening of the Eleventh Century to the Discovery of 
America by Columbus in 1492) 



CHAPTER XLIV 
FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY 

I. Feudalism 

542 . Feudalism defined. — Feudalism is the name given to a 
special form of society and government, based upon a peculiar 
tenure of land, which prevailed in Europe during the latter part 
of the Middle Ages, attaining, however, its most perfect develop- 
ment in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. 

A feudal estate, which might embrace a few acres or an entire 
province, was called a fief, or fend, whence the term Feudalism. 
The person granting a fief was called the suzerain, liege, or lord ; 
the one receiving it, his vassal, liegeman, or retainer. 

543. The Ideal System. — The few definitions given above will 
render intelligible the following explanation of the theory of the 
Teudal system. In theory all the kings of the earth were vassals 
of the Emperor, who according to good imperialists was God's 
vassal, and according to good churchmen, the Pope's. The kings 
received their dominions as fiefs to be held on conditions of loy- 
alty to their suzerain and of fealty to right and justice. Should 
a king become disloyal, or rule unjustly or wickedly, through such 
misconduct he forfeited his fief, and it might be taken from him 
by his suzerain and given to another worthier liegeman. 

In the same way as the king received his fief from the Emperor, 
so might he grant it out in parcels to his chief men, they, in return 
for it, promising, in general, to be faithful to him as their lord, 
and to serve and aid him. In like manner these immediate vas- 
sals of the king, or suzerain, might parcel out their domains in 

383 



384 FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY 

smaller tracts to others, on conditions similar to those upon which 
they had themselves received theirs ; and so on down through 
any number of stages. 

We have thus far dealt only with the soil of a country. We 
must next notice what disposition was made of the people under 
this system. The king on receiving his fief was intrusted with 
sovereignty over all persons living upon it ; he became their 
commander, their lawmaker, and their judge, — practically, their 
absolute, irresponsible ruler. Then, when he parceled out his 
fief among his great men, he invested them, within the limits of 
the fiefs granted, with all his own sovereign rights. Each vassal 
became a virtual sovereign in his own domain. And when these 
great vassals subdivided their fiefs and granted portions of them 
to others, they in turn invested their vassals with more or less of 
those powers of sovereignty with which they themselves had been 
clothed. 1 

To illustrate the workings of the system, we will suppose the 
king or suzerain to be in need of an army. He calls upon his own 
immediate vassals for aid ; these in turn call upon their vassals ; 
and so the order runs down through the various ranks of retainers. 
The retainers in the lowest rank rally around their respective lords, 
who, with their bands, gather about their lords, and so on up 
through the rising tiers of the system, until the immediate vassals 
of the suzerain, or chief lord, present themselves before him with 
their graduated trains of followers. The array constitutes a feudal 
army, — a splendidly organized body in theory, but in fact an 
extremely poor instrument for warfare. 

Such was the ideal feudal state. It is needless to say that 
the ideal was never perfectly realized. The system simply made 
more or less distant approaches to it in the several European 
countries. 

544. The Ceremony of Homage. — A fief was conferred by a 
very solemn and peculiar ceremony called homage. The person 

1 The holders of small fiefs were not allowed to exercise the more important 
functions of sovereignty. Thus, of the estimated number of 70,000 fief holders in 
France in the tenth century, only between 100 and 200 possessed the right " to coin 
money, levy taxes, make laws, and administer their own justice." 



THE RELATIONS OF LORD AND VASSAL 385 




about to become a vassal, kneeling with uncovered head, placed 
his hands in those of his future lord and solemnly vowed to be 
henceforth his man 2 and to serve him faithfully even with his life. 
This part of the procedure, sealed with a kiss, was what properly 
constituted the ceremony of homage. It was accompanied by an 
oath of fealty, and the whole was concluded by the act of investi- 
ture, whereby the lord put his vassal in actual possession of the 
land or, by placing in his hand a 
clod of earth or a twig, symbolized 
the delivery to him of the estate for 
which he had just now done hom- 
age and sworn fealty. 

545. The Relations of Lord and 
Vassal. — In general terms the duty 
of the vassal was service ; that of 
the lord, protection. The most 
honorable service required of the 
vassal, and the one most willingly 
rendered in a martial age, was 
military aid. The liegeman must 
always be ready to follow his lord upon his military expeditions ; 
but the time of service for one year was usually not more than 
forty days. He must defend his lord in battle ; if he should be 
unhorsed, must give him his own animal ■ and if he should be 
made a prisoner, must offer himself as a hostage for his release. 
He must also give entertainment to his lord and his retinue on 
their journeys. He was, moreover, under obligation, upon sum- 
mons, to serve as juror or judge in the lord's court, and thus aid 
him in the settlement of disputes between his vassals. 

Among other incidents attaching to a fief were what were 
known as reliefs, escheats, and aids. 

A relief was the name given to the sum of money which an 
heir upon coming into possession of a fief must pay to the lord 
of the domain. This was often a large amount, being usually the 
entire revenue of the estate for one year. 



Fig. 107. — The Ceremony 
of Homage. (From a seal 
of the twelfth century) 



2 Latin homo, whence " homage." 



386 FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY 

By escheat was meant the falling back of the fief into the hands 
of the lord through failure of heirs. If the fief lapsed through 
disloyalty or other misdemeanor on the part of the vassal, this 
was known as forfeiture. 

Aids were sums of money which the lord had a right to demand 
to enable him to meet unusual expenditures, especially for defray- 
ing the expense of knighting his eldest son, for providing a mar- 
riage dower for his eldest daughter, and for ransoming his own 
person from captivity in case he were made a prisoner of war. 
The chief return that the lord was bound to make to the vassal 
as a compensation for these various services and rights was justice 
and protection, — by no means a small return in an age of turmoil 
and insecurity. 

546. Serfs and Serfdom. — The vassals, or fief holders of vari- 
ous grades, constituted only a small proportion, perhaps five per 
cent or less, of the population of the countries where feudalism 
came to prevail. The great bulk of the folk were agricultural 
serfs. 3 These were the men who actually tilled the soil. Just how 
this servile class arose is not positively known. In some coun- 
tries at least they seem to have been the lineal descendants of the 
slaves of Roman times. Their status varied greatly from country 
to country and from period to period; that is to say, there came 
to be many grades of serfs filling the space between the actual 
slave and the full freeman. Consequently it is impossible to give 
any general account of the class which can be regarded as a true 
picture of their actual condition as a body at any given time. 
The following description must therefore be taken as reflecting 
their duties and disabilities only in the most general way. 

The first and most characteristic feature of the condition of 
the serfs was that they were affixed to the soil. They could not 
of their own will leave the estate or manor to which they belonged ; 

3 There were some free peasants and a larger number of free artisans and traders, 
inhabitants of the towns. The number of actual slaves was small. They had almost 
all disappeared before the end of the tenth century, either having been emancipated 
or having been lifted into the lowest order of serfs, which was an advance toward 
freedom. At the time of the great Domesday survey (sec. 562) there were, according 
to this record, only about 25,000 slaves in England. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 387 

nor, on the other hand, could their lord deprive them of their 
holdings and set them adrift. When the land changed masters 
they passed with it, just like a " rooted tree or stone earth-bound." 

Each serf had allotted him by his lord a cottage and a number 
of acres of land, — thirty acres formed a normal holding, — con- 
sisting of numerous narrow strips scattered about the great open 
fields of the manor. For these he paid a rent, usually, during the 
earlier feudal times, in kind and in personal services. The personal 
services included a certain number of days' work, usually two or 
three days each week, on the demesne, that is, the land which 
the lord had kept in his own hands as a sort of home farm. He 
must furthermore grind his grain at his lord's mill, press his 
grapes at his wine press, bake his bread at his oven, often paying 
for these services an unreasonable toll. 

After the serf had rendered to the lord all the rent in kind he 
owed for his cottage and bit of ground, the remainder of the 
produce from his fields was, in accordance with custom if not 
always with law, his own. Generally the share was only just 
sufficient to keep the wolf of hunger from his door. 

In some countries, upon the death of the serf all that he had 
became in the eye of the law the property of his lord ; in other 
lands, again, the lord could take only the best animal or the best 
implement of the deceased serf. This was called the heriot. 

What we have now said will convey some idea of the nature of 
the relations that existed between the lord and his serf, and will 
indicate how servile and burdensome was the tenure by which the 
serf held his cottage and bit of ground. How the serf gradually 
freed himself from the heavy yoke of his servitude and became a 
freeman will appear as we advance in our narrative. 

547. Development of the Feudal System The development of 

feudalism as a military system was hastened by the disturbed state 
of society everywhere during the greater part of the ninth and 
the tenth century ; for after the death of Charlemagne and the 
partition of his empire, it appeared as though the world were again 
falling back into chaos. The bonds of society seemed entirely 
broken. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. 



388 FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY 

To internal disorders were added the invasions of the outside 
barbarians ; for, no longer held in restraint by the strong arm of 
the great Charles, they had now begun their raids anew. From 
the north came the Scandinavian pirates to harry the shores of 
Germany, Gaul, and Britain. The terror which these pagan sea 
rovers inspired is commemorated by the supplication of the litany 
of those days : " From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord, deliver 
us." From the east came the terrible Hungarians, and by the 
way of the sea on the south came an equally dreaded foe, the 
Saracens, who had gained a foothold in Spain and Sicily. 

It was this anarchical state of things which caused all classes to 
hasten to enter the feudal system in order to secure the protection 
which it alone could afford. Kings, princes, and wealthy persons 
who had large landed possessions which they had never parceled 
out as fiefs, were now led to dp so, that their estates might be held 
by tenants bound to protect them by all the sacred obligations of 
homage and fealty. Thus sovereigns and princes became suzerains 
and feudal lords. Again, the smaller proprietors often voluntarily 
surrendered their little holdings into the hands of some neighbor- 
ing lord, and then received them back again from him as fiefs, 
that they might claim protection as vassals. They deemed this 
better than being robbed of their property altogether. 

Moreover, for like reasons and in like manner, churches, 
monasteries, and cities became members of the feudal system. 
They granted out their vast possessions as fiefs, and thus became 
suzerains and lords. Bishops and abbots became the heads of 
great bands of retainers, and often themselves led military expe- 
ditions like temporal chiefs. On the other hand, these same 
monasteries and towns frequently placed themselves under the 
protection of some powerful lord, and thus came in vassalage to 
him. Sometimes the bishops and the heads of religious houses, 
instead of paying military service, bound themselves to say a 
certain number of Masses for the lord or his family. 

In this way were Church and State, all classes of society from the 
wealthiest suzerain to the humblest vassal, bound together by 
feudal ties. Everything was impressed with the stamp of feudalism. 



CASTLES OF THE NOBLES 



389 



548. Castles of the Nobles. — The lawless and violent character 
of the times during which feudalism prevailed is well shown by 
the nature of the residences which the great nobles built for 
themselves. These were strong stone fortresses, often perched 
upon some rocky eminence and defended by moats and towers. 
France, Germany, Italy, Northern Spain, England, and Scotland, 
in which countries the feudal system became most thoroughly 




Fig. 10S. — Typical Mediaeval Castle. (From an engraving) 

developed, fairly bristled with these fortified residences of the 
nobility. Strong walls were the only protection against the uni- 
versal violence of the age. 

One of the most striking and picturesque features of the land- 
scape of many regions in Europe to-day is the ivy-mantled towers 
and walls of these feudal castles now falling into ruins. 

549. Causes of the Decay of Feudalism. — Chief among the 
various causes which undermined and at length overthrew feu- 
dalism were the hostility of the kings to the system, the Cru- 
sades, the growth of the cities, and the introduction of firearms 
in the art of war. 

The kings opposed the system and sought to break it down, 
because it left them only the semblance of power. We shall see 
later how the kings came again to their own (Chapter LI I). The 



390 FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY 

Crusades, or Holy Wars, that agitated all Europe during the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries did much to weaken the power of 
the nobles ; for in order to raise money for their expeditions they 
frequently sold or mortgaged their estates, and in this way power 
and influence passed into the hands of the kings or the wealthy 
merchants of the cities. Many of the great nobles also perished 
in battle with the infidels, and their lands escheated to their 
suzerain, whose domains were thus augmented. 

The growth of the towns also tended to the same end. As 
they increased in wealth and influence, they became able to resist 
the exactions and tyranny of the lord in whose fief they happened 
to be, and eventually were able to secede, as it were, from his 
authority, and to make of themselves little republics. 

Again, improvements and changes in the mode of warfare, 
especially those resulting from the use of gunpowder, hastened 
the downfall of feudalism by rendering the yeoman foot soldier 
equal to the armor-clad knight. " It made all men of the same 
height," as Carlyle puts it. 

But it is to be carefully noted that, though feudalism as a 
system of government disappeared, speaking broadly, with the 
Middle Ages, it still continued to exist as a social organization. 
The nobles lost their power and authority as petty sovereigns, 
but retained their titles, their privileges, their social distinction, 
and, in many cases, their vast landed estates. 

550. Defects of the Feudal System. — Feudalism was perhaps 
the best form of social organization that it was possible to main- 
tain in Europe during the mediaeval period ; yet it had many 
and serious defects. Among its chief faults may be pointed out 
the two following. 

First, it rendered impossible the formation of strong national 
governments. Every country was divided and subdivided into a 
vast number of practically independent principalities. Thus in 
the tenth century France was partitioned among about a hundred 
and fifty overlords, all exercising equal and coordinate powers 
of sovereignty. The enormous estates of these great lords were 
again subdivided into about seventy thousand smaller fiefs. 



THE GOOD RESULTS OF FEUDALISM 391 

In theory, as we have seen, the holders of these petty estates 
were bound to serve and obey their overlords, and these great 
nobles were in turn the sworn vassals of the French king. But 
many of these lords were richer and stronger than the king him- 
self, and if they chose to cast off their allegiance to him, he found 
it impossible to reduce them to obedience. The king's time was 
chiefly occupied in ineffectual efforts to reduce his haughty and 
refractory nobles to proper submission, and in intervening feebly 
to compose their endless quarrels with one another. It is easy to 
conceive the disorder and wretchedness produced by this state 
of things. 

A second evil of the institution was its exclusiveness. Under 
the workings of the system society became divided into classes 
separated by lines which, though not impassable, were yet very 
rigid, with a proud hereditary aristocracy at its head. It was only 
as the lower classes in the different countries gradually wrested 
from the feudal nobility their special and unfair privileges that 
a better, because more democratic, form of society arose, and 
civilization began to make more rapid progress. 

551. The Good Results of Feudalism. — The most conspicuous 
service that feudalism rendered European civilization was the pro- 
tection which it gave to society after the break-up of the empire 
of Charles the Great. " It was the mailed feudal horseman and 
the impregnable walls of the feudal castle that foiled the attacks 
of the Danes, the Saracens, and the Hungarians" (Oman). 

Feudalism rendered another noteworthy service to society in 
fostering among its privileged members self-reliance and love of 
personal independence. Turbulent, violent, and refractory as was 
the feudal aristocracy of Europe, it performed the grand service 
of keeping alive during the later mediaeval period the spirit of 
liberty. The feudal lords would not allow themselves to be dealt 
with arrogantly by their king ; they stood on their rights as free- 
men. Hence royalty was prevented from becoming as despotic 
as would otherwise have been the case. Thus, in England, for 
instance, the feudal lords held such tyrannical rulers as King 
John in check (sec. 620), until such time as the yeoman and 



392 FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY 

the burgher were bold enough and strong enough alone to stand 
against and to baffle their despotically inclined sovereigns. 

Another of the good effects of feudalism was the impulse it 
gave to certain forms of polite literature. Just as learning and 
philosophy were fostered by the se'clusion of the cloister, so were 
poetry and romance fostered by the open and joyous hospitalities 
of the baronial hall. The castle door was always open to the 
wandering singer and story-teller, and it was amidst the scenes 
of festivity within that the ballads and romances of mediaeval 
minstrelsy and literature had their birth. 

Still another service which feudalism rendered to civilization 
was the development within the baronial castle of those ideas 
and sentiments — among others a nice sense of honor and an 
exalted consideration for woman — which found their noblest 
expression in chivalry, of which institution and its good effects 
upon the social life of Europe we shall now proceed to speak. 

II. Chivalry 

552. Chivalry defined ; Origin of the Institution. — Chivalry has 
been aptly defined as the " Flower of Feudalism." It was a mili- 
tary institution or order, the members of which, called knights, 
were pledged to the protection of the Church and to the defense 
of the weak and the oppressed. 

The germ out of which chivalry developed seems to have been 
the body of vassal horsemen which Charles Martel created to 
repel the raids of the Saracens into Aquitaine after the battle of 
Tours 4 (sec. 523). It was in these border wars that the Franks 
learned from the Arab Moors "to put their trust in horses." 
From South France this new military system, in which mounted 
armor-clad warriors largely superseded the earlier foot soldiers, 
spread over Europe. The development was closely connected 
with that of feudalism; indeed, it was the military side of that 

4 See Brunner, " Der Reiterdienst und die Anfange des Lehnwesens " in his For- 
schungen zur Geschichte des deiitschen und franz'dsicken Rechtes (Stuttgart, 1894). 
This important study is of the nature of a discovery respecting the beginnings, or 
rather the development, of the fief system and of chivalry. 



TRAINING OF THE KNIGHT 393 

development. It became the rule that all fief holders must render 
military service on horseback. Fighting on horseback gradually 
became the normal mode and for centuries remained so. 

Gradually this feudal warrior caste underwent a transforma- 
tion. It became in part independent of the feudal system, in so 
far as that had to do with the land, so that any person, if qualified 
by birth and properly initiated, might be a member of the order 
without being the holder of a fief. A great part of the later 
knights were portionless sons of the nobility. At the same time 
the religious spirit entered the order, and it became a Christian 
brotherhood, somewhat like the order of the priesthood. 

553. Training of the Knight. — When chivalry had once be- 
come established, all the sons of the nobility, save such as were 
to enter the holy orders of the Church, were set apart and 
disciplined for its service. The sons of the poorer nobles were 
usually placed in the family of some lord of renown and wealth, 
whose castle became a sort of school, where they were trained in 
the duties and exercises of knighthood. 

This education began at the early age of seven, the youth bear- 
ing the name of page or varlet until he attained the age of four- 
teen, when he acquired the title of squire, or esquire. The lord 
and his knights trained the boys in manly and martial duties, while 
the ladies of the castle instructed them in the duties of religion 
and in all knightly etiquette. The duties of the page were usu- 
ally confined to the castle, though sometimes he accompanied 
his lord to the field. The esquire always attended in battle the 
knight to whom he was attached, carrying his arms and, if need 
be, engaging in the fight. 

554. The Ceremony of Knighting. — At the age of twenty-one 
the squire became a knight, being then introduced to the order 
of knighthood by a peculiar and impressive service. After a long 
fast and vigil the candidate listened to a lengthy sermon on his 
duties as a knight. Then kneeling, as in the feudal ceremony of 
homage, before the lord conducting the services, he vowed to 
defend religion and the ladies, to succor the distressed, and ever 
to be faithful to his companion knights. His arms were now given 



394 



FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY 



to him, and his sword was girded on, when the lord, striking him 
with the flat of his sword on the shoulders, said, " In the name of 
God, of St. Michael, and of St. George, I dub thee knight; be 
brave, bold, and loyal." 

555. The Tournament. — The tournament was the favorite 
amusement of the age of chivalry. It was a mimic battle between 
two companies of knights, armed usually with pointless swords or 
blunted lances. In the universal esteem in which the participants 




Fig. 109. — A Tilting Match between Two Knights 
(From an engraving) 

were held, it reminds us of the sacred games of the Greeks ; while 
in the fierce and sanguinary character it often assumed, it recalls 
the gladiatorial combats of the Roman amphitheater. 

556. Decline of Chivalry. — The fifteenth century was the 
evening of chivalry. The decline of the system resulted from 
the operation of the same causes that effected the overthrow of 
feudalism. The changes in the mode of warfare which helped to 
do away with the feudal baron and his mail-clad retainers likewise 
tended to destroy knight-errantry. And then as civilization ad- 
vanced, new feelings and sentiments began to claim the attention 
and to work upon the imagination of men. Governments, too, 



THE GOOD IN CHIVALRY 395 

became more regular, and the increased order and security of 
society rendered less needful the services of the gallant knight in 
behalf of the weak and the oppressed. 

557. The Good in Chivalry. — Chivalry contributed powerfully 
to lift that sentiment of respect for the gentler sex which charac- 
terized all the northern nations, into that tender veneration of 
woman which forms the distinguishing characteristic of the present 
age, and makes it differ from all preceding phases of civilization. 

Again, chivalry did much to create that ideal of character — an 
ideal distinguished by the virtues of courtesy, gentleness, humanity, 
loyalty, magnanimity, and fidelity to the plighted word — which 
we rightly think to surpass any ever formed under the influences 
of antiquity. Just as Christianity gave to the world an ideal man- 
hood which it was to strive to realize, so did chivalry hold up 
an ideal to which men were to conform their lives. Men, indeed, 
have never perfectly realized either the ideal of Christianity or 
that of chivalry ; but the influence which these two ideals have 
had in shaping and giving character to the lives of men cannot 
be overestimated. Together, through the enthusiasm and effort 
awakened for their realization, they have produced a new type 
of manhood, which we indicate by the phrase " a knightly and 
Christian character." 



Selections from the Sources. — Translations and Reprints, vol. iii, No. 5, 
" English Manorial Documents," and vol. iv, No. 3, " Documents Illustrative 
of Feudalism." Robinson, Readings in European History, vol. i, chap. ix. 

Secondary Works. — Emerton, E., Introduction to the Middle Ages, 
chap, xv ; and Medicsval Europe, chap, xiv and the first part of chap. xv. 
Adams, G. B., Civilization during the Middle Ages, chap. ix. Seignobos, 

C, The Fetidal Regime. Seebohm, F., The English Village Community ; 
this is the most noteworthy work in our language on the subject with 
which it deals. Cheyney, E. P., An Introdtiction to the Industrial and 
Social History 0/ England, chap, ii, "Rural Life and Organization." Munro, 

D. C, and Sellery, G. C, Mediceval Civilization, pp. 159-211 and 240- 
247. Cutts, E. L., Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, pp. 311-460. 
James, G. P. R., History of Chivalry. Cornish, F. W., Chivalry. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Life of the serfs on a mediaeval manor. 
2. The open-field system of cultivation. See Seebohm. 3. Description of a 
feudal castle. 4. Life in the castle. 5. A tournament. 




Fig. mo. — Landing in England of William of Normandy 
(From the Bayeux Tapestry) 



CHAPTER XLV 



THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 1 

558. Introductory. — The history of the Normans — the name, 
it will be recalled, of the transformed Scandinavians who settled 
in Northern Gaul (sec. 540) — is simply a continuation of the 
story of the Northmen ; and nothing could better illustrate the 
difference between the period we have left behind and the one 
upon which we have entered, nothing could more strikingly 
exhibit the gradual transformation that has crept over the face 
and spirit of European society, than the transformation which 
time and favoring associations have wrought in these men. When 
first we met them in the ninth century they were pagans ; now 
they are Christians. Then they were rough, wild, merciless cor- 
sairs ; now they are become the most cultured, polished, and 
chivalrous people in Europe. But the restless, daring spirit that 
drove the Norse sea kings forth upon the waves in quest of 
adventure and booty still stirs in the breasts of their descend- 
ants. As has been said, they were simply changed from heathen 
Vikings, delighting in the wild life of sea rover and pirate, into 
Christian knights, eager for pilgrimages and crusades. 

1 Not long before the Normans conquered England, they succeeded in gaining a 
foothold in the south of Italy, where they established a feudal state, which ulti- 
mately included the island of Sicily. The fourth head of the commonwealth was 
the celebrated Robert Guiscard (d. 1085), who spread the renown of the Norman 
name throughout the Mediterranean lands. This Norman state, converted finally 
into a kingdom, lasted until late in the twelfth century (1194). 

396 



EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE CONQUEST 397 

The most important of the enterprises of the Normans, and 
one followed by consequences of the greatest magnitude not only 
to the conquered people but indirectly to the world, was their 
conquest of England. 

559. Events leading up to the Conquest. — In the year 1066 
Edward the Confessor, in whose person, it will be recalled, the old 
English line was restored after the Danish usurpation (sec. 539), 
died, and immediately the Witan, 2 in accordance with the dying 
wish of the king, chose Harold, Earl of Wessex, the best and 
strongest man in all England, to be his successor. 

When the news of the action of the Witan and of Harold's 
acceptance of the English crown was carried across the Chan- 
nel to William, Duke of Normandy, he was greatly vexed. He 
declared that Edward, who was his cousin, had during his life- 
time promised the throne to him, and that Harold had assented 
to this, and by solemn oath engaged to sustain him. He now 
demanded of Harold that he surrender to him the usurped throne, 
threatening the immediate invasion of the island in case he 
refused. King Harold answered the demand by collecting an 
army for the defense of his dominions. Duke William now made 
ready for a descent upon the English coast. 

560. The Battle of Hastings (1066). — The Norman army of 
invasion landed in the south of England, at the port of Hastings, 
which place gave name to the battle that almost immediately 
followed, — the battle that was to determine the fate of England. 
It was begun by a horseman riding out from the Norman lines 
and advancing alone toward the English army, tossing up his 
sword and skillfully catching it as it fell, and singing all the while 
the stirring battle song of Charlemagne and Roland. The English 
watched with astonishment this exhibition of "careless dexterity," 
and if they did not contrast the vivacity and nimbleness of the 
Norman foe with their own heavy and clumsy manners, others at 
least have not failed to do so. 

2 The Witan, or Witenagemot, which means the " Meeting of the Wise Men," 
was the common council of the realm. The House of Lords of the present Parlb 
ment is a survival of this early national assembly. 



398 THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 

The battle once joined, the conflict was long and terrific. 
The day finally went against the English. Harold fell, pierced 
through the eye by an arrow; and William was master of the 
field. He now marched upon London, and at Westminster, on 
Christmas Day, 1066, was crowned king of England. 

561. The Distribution of the Land and the Gemot of Salisbury. 
— Almost the first act of William after he had established his 
power in England was to fulfill his promise to the nobles who had 
aided him in his enterprise, by distributing among them the for- 
feited estates of the English who had fought against him at 
Hastings. Profiting by the lesson taught by the wretched condi- 
tion of France, which country was kept in a state of constant 
turmoil by a host of feudal lords, many of whom were almost or 
quite as powerful as the king himself (sec. 550), William took care 
that in the distribution no feudatory should receive an entire shire, 
save in two or three exceptional cases. To the great lord to whom 
he must needs give a large fief, he granted not a continuous tract 
of land, but several estates or manors scattered in different parts 
of the country, in order that there might be no dangerous con- 
centration of property or power in the hands of the vassal. 

Another equally important limitation of the power of the vassal 
was effected by William through his requiring all fief holders, great 
and small, to take an oath of fealty directly to him as overlord. 
This was a great innovation upon feudal custom, for the rule was 
that the vassal should swear fealty to his own immediate lord only, 
and in war follow his banner even against his own king. The 
oath that William exacted from every fief holder made the alle- 
giance which he owed to his king superior to that which he owed 
to his own immediate lord. At the great gemot or military 
assembly of Salisbury in the year 1086 " all the landholders of 
substance in England " swore to William this solemn oath of 
superior fealty and allegiance. 

William also denied to his feudatories the right of coining money 
and making laws ; and by other wise restrictions upon their power 
saved England from those endless contentions and petty wars that 
were distracting almost every other country of Europe. 



NORMAN SUCCESSORS OF THE CONQUEROR 399 

562. Domesday Book One of the most celebrated acts of 

the Conqueror was the making of Domesday Book. This famous 
book contained a description and valuation of all the lands of 
England, — excepting those of some counties, mostly in the north, 
that were either unconquered or unsettled ; an enumeration of 
the cattle and sheep ; and statements of the income of every 
man. It was intended, in a word, to be a perfect survey and 
census of the entire kingdom. 

563 . The Norman Successors of the Conqueror. — For nearly three 
quarters of a century after the death of William the Conqueror, 
England was ruled by Norman kings. 3 The latter part of this 
period was a 



troublous time. 
The succession to 
the crown coming 
into dispute, civil 
war broke out. 
The result of the 
contention was a 
decline in the 
royal power, and 
the ascendancy 
of the Norman 
barons, who for a 
time made Eng- 
land the scene of 
the same feudal 
anarchy that prevailed at this time upon the Continent. Finally, 
in 1 154, the Norman dynasty gave place to that of the Plantage- 
nets. Under Henry II (n 54-1 189), the first king of the new 
house, and an energetic and strong ruler, the barons were again 
brought into proper subjection to the crown, and many cas- 
tles which had been built without royal permission during the 




Fig. hi. — Domesday Book. (From a facsimile edi- 
tion published by royal command in 1862) 

There are two large volumes of the survey, one being a 
folio of 760 pages and the other a large octavo of 900 
pages. The strong box shown in the cut is the chest in 
which the volumes were formerly kept 



3 William II, known as Rufus "the Red" (1087-1100); Henry I, surnamed 
Beauclerc, "the good scholar" (1100-1135); and Stephen of Blois (1135-1154). 
William and Henry were sons, and Stephen a grandson, of the Conqueror. 



400 THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 

preceding anarchical period, and some of which at least were 
little better than robbers' dens, were dismantled and demolished. 

564. Results of the Norman Conquest. — The most important 
and noteworthy result of the Conquest was the establishment in 
England of a strong centralized government. England now be- 
came a real kingdom, — what it had hardly been in more than 
semblance before. 

A second result of the Conquest was the founding of a new 
feudal aristocracy. The Saxon thane was displaced by the Nor- 
man baron. This not only introduced a new and more refined 
element into the social life of England, but it also changed the 
membership, the temper, and the name of the national assembly, 
the old English Witan now becoming the Parliament of later times. 

A third result of the Conquest was the drawing of England 
into closer relations with the countries of Continental Europe, by 
which means her advance in art, science, and general culture was 
greatly promoted. 

Selections from the Sources. — The Bayeux Tapestry. (Reproduced in 
autotype plates with historic notes by Frank Rede Fowke, London, 1875.) 
This is a strip of linen canvas over two hundred feet long and nineteen 
inches wide, upon which are embroidered in colors seventy-two pictures, 
representing episodes in the Norman conquest of England. The work 
was executed not long after the events it depicts, and is named from the 
cathedral in France where it is kept. Its importance consists in the infor- 
mation it conveys respecting the life and manners, and the costumes, 
arms, and armor of the times. Kendall, Source-Booh, chap, hi, " Norman 
England." 

Secondary Works. — Freeman, E. A., The Norman Conquest. This is a 
little book which contains " the same tale told afresh," that fills the six 
volumes of the author's earlier great work on the Norman Conquest. 
Also by the same author, William the Conqueror. Johnson, A. H., The 
Normans hi Europe. Creasy, E. S., Decisive Battles of the World, 
chap, vii, "The Battle of Hastings, a.d. 1066." Green, J. R., The Con- 
quest of England, chap. x. Jewett, S. O., The Story of the Normans, 
chap, vii, " The Normans in Italy." 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Robert Guiscard. 2. The Bayeux Tap- 
estry. 3. Domesday Book. 4. The Curfew. 5. Tbe "forests" and forest 
laws of the Norman kings. 



CHAPTER XLVI 



THE PAPACY AND THE EMPIRE 



565. The Three Theories respecting the Relations of Pope and 
Emperor. — After the revival of the Empire in the West and the 
rise of the Papacy, there gradually grew up three different theories 
in regard to the divinely consti- 
tuted relation of the Pope and the 
Emperor. The first was that each 
was independently commissioned 
by God, the Pope to rule the 
spirits of men, the Emperor to rule 
their bodies. Each reigning thus 
by original divine right, neither is 
set above the other, but both are 
to cooperate and to help each 
other. The special duty of the 
temporal power is to maintain 
order in the world and to be the 
protector of the Church. 

The second theory, the one 
held by the imperial party, was 
that the Emperor was superior to 
the Pope in secular affairs. Argu- 
ments from Scripture and from 
the transactions of history were 
not wanting to support this view. 
Thus Christ's payment of tribute 
money was cited as proof that he regarded the temporal power 
as superior to the spiritual. And then, did he not say, " Render 
unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's "? Further, the gifts of 
Pippin and Charles the Great to the Roman see made the popes, 
it was maintained, the vassals of the emperors. 

401 




Fig. 112. — The Spiritual and 
the Temporal Power. (From 
a ninth-century mosaic in the 
Lateran at Rome) 

St. Peter gives to Pope Leo III the 

stola and to Charlemagne the banner 
of Rome as symbols of the spiritual 
and temporal power. The portrait 
of Charlemagne here shown is with 
little doubt the oldest in existence 



402 THE PAPACY AND THE EMPIRE 

The third theory, the one held by the papal party, maintained 
that the ordained relation of the two powers was the subordina- 
tion of the temporal to the spiritual authority, even in civil affairs. 
This view was maintained by such texts of Scripture as these : 
" But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is 
judged of no man"; 1 "See, I have this day set thee over the 
nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, 
and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." 2 
The conception was further illustrated by such comparisons as the 
following, — for in mediaeval times parable and metaphor often 
took the place of argument : As God has set in the heavens two 
lights, the sun and the moon, so has he established on earth two 
powers, the spiritual and the temporal ; but as the moon is infe- 
rior to the sun and receives its light from it, so is the Emperor 
inferior to the Pope and receives all power from him. Again, the 
two authorities were likened to the soul and the body ; as the 
former rules over the latter, so is it ordered that the spiritual 
power shall rule over and subject the temporal. 

The first theory was the impracticable dream of lofty souls who 
forgot that men are human. Christendom was virtually divided 
into two hostile camps the members of which were respectively 
supporters of the imperial and the papal theory. 

566. Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) and his Reforms. — One 
of the most eminent supporters of the papal claims was Pope 
Gregory VII, better known by his earlier name of Hildebrand, 
the most noteworthy character, after Charlemagne, that the Mid- 
dle Ages produced. In the year 1049 he was brought from the 
cloisters of the celebrated monastery of Cluny, in France, to 
Rome, where he became the maker and adviser of popes, and 
finally was himself elevated to the pontifical throne, which he 
held from 1073 to 1085. 

When Gregory came to the papal throne one grave danger 
threatening the Church was the marriage of the clergy. At this 
time a great part of the minor clergy were married. Gregory 

1 1 Corinthians ii. 15. 

2 Jeremiah i. 10. 



POPE GREGORY VII AND HIS REFORMS 403 

resolved to bring all the clergy to the strict observance of celi- 
bate vows. By thus separating the priests from the attachments 
of home, and lifting from them all family burdens and cares, he 
aimed to render their consecration to the duties of their offices 
more whole-souled and their dependence upon the Church more 
complete. Though most obstinately opposed by a large section of 
the clergy, this reform was finally effected, — but not in Gregory's 
lifetime, — so that celibacy became as binding upon the priest as 
upon the monk. 

Gregory's second reform, the correction of simony, 8 had for 
one of its ultimate objects the freeing of the lands and offices of 
the Church from the control of lay lords and princes, and the 
bringing of them more completely under the direction of the 
Roman pontiff. 

The evil of simony had grown up in the Church chiefly in the 
following way. As the feudal system took possession of European 
society, the Church, like individuals and cities, assumed feudal 
relations. Thus, as we have already seen, abbots and bishops, as 
the heads of monasteries and churches, for the sake of protection, 
became the vassals of powerful barons or princes. When once a 
prelate had promised fealty for his estates or temporalities, as 
they were called, these became henceforth a permanent fief of 
the overlord and subject to all the incidents of the feudal tenure. 
When a vacancy occurred the lord assumed the right to fill it, 
just as in case of the escheat of a lay fief. 4 In this way the tem- 
poral rulers throughout Europe had come to exercise the right of 
nominating or confirming the election of almost all the great prel- 
ates of the Church. 

Now these lay princes who had the patronage of these Church 
offices and lands handled them just as they did their lay fiefs. 
They required the person nominated to an abbacy or to a bishop- 
ric to pay for the appointment and investiture a sum proportioned 

3 By simony is meant the purchase of an office in the Church, the name of the 
offense coming from Simon Magus, who offered Peter money for the power to confer 
the Holy Spirit. See Acts viii. 9-24. 

4 The clergy and monks still retained the nominal right of election, but too fre- 
quently an election by them was a mere matter of form. For a typical case see sec. 587. 



404 



THE PAPACY AND THE EMPIRE 




to the income from the office. This was in strict accord with the 
feudal rule which allowed the lord to demand from the vassal, 
upon his investiture with a fief, a sum of money called a relief 
(sec. 545). This rule, thus applied to Church lands and offices, 
was, it is easy to see, the cause of great evil and corruption. The 

ecclesiastical vacancies were 
virtually sold to the highest 
bidder, and at times the most un- 
suitable persons became bishops 
and abbots. 

To remedy the evil Gregory 
issued decrees forbidding any one 
of the clergy to receive the in- 
vestiture of a bishopric or abbey 
or church from the hands of a 
temporal prince or lord. Any 
one who should dare to disobey 
these decrees was threatened 
with the penalties of the Church. 
567. Excommunications and 
Interdicts. — The chief instru- 
ments relied upon by Gregory for 
enforcing his decrees were the 
— excommunication and interdict. 
The first was directed against individuals. The person excom- 
municated was cut off from all relations with his fellow-men. If 
a king, his subjects were released from their oath of allegiance. 
Any one providing the excommunicate with food or shelter incurred 
the penalties of the Church. Living, the excommunicated person 
was to be shunned as though tainted with an infectious disease ; 
and dead, he was to be refused the ordinary rites of burial. 

The interdict was directed against a city, province, or kingdom. 
Throughout the region under this ban the churches were closed ; 
no bell could be rung, no marriage celebrated, no burial ceremony 
performed. The sacraments of baptism and extreme unction alone 
could be administered. 



Fig. 113. — Investiture of a 
Bishop by a King through 
the Giving of the Crosier, 
or Pastoral Staff. (From a 
manuscript of the tenth century) 

spiritual weapons of the Church, 



THE INVESTITURE CONTEST 405 

It is difficult for us in modern days to realize the effect of 
these bans during these early ages. They rarely failed in bring- 
ing the most contumacious offender to a speedy and abject 
confession, or in effecting his undoing. This will appear in the 
following paragraph. 

568. The Investiture Contest; Emperor Henry IV's Humiliation 
at Canossa (1077). — It was in Germany that Gregory experienced 
the most formidable opposition to his reform measures. The 
Emperor-elect, King Henry IV (105 6-1 106), who had been threat- 
ened by Gregory with excommunication and deposition, gath- 
ering in council such of the prelates of the Empire as would 
answer his call (1076), even dared to bid him descend from the 
papal throne. Gregory in turn gathered a council at Rome and 
deposed and excommunicated the Emperor. 

Henry's excommunication encouraged a revolt on the part of 
some of his discontented subjects. He was shunned as a man 
accursed by Heaven. His authority seemed to have slipped en- 
tirely out of his hands, and his kingdom was on the point of 
going to pieces. In this wretched state of his affairs there was 
but one thing for him to do, — to go to Gregory and humbly sue 
for pardon and reinstatement in the favor of the Church. 

Henry sought Gregory among the Apennines, at Canossa, a 
stronghold of the celebrated Countess Matilda of Tuscany. But 
Gregory refused to admit him to his presence. It was winter, and 
on three successive days the king, clothed in sackcloth, stood with 
bare feet in the snow of the courtyard of the castle, waiting for 
permission to kneel at the feet of the pontiff and to receive 
forgiveness. On the fourth day the king was admitted to the 
presence of Gregory, and the sentence of excommunication was 
removed (1077). 

Henry afterwards avenged his humiliation. He raised an army, 
descended upon Rome, and drove Gregory into exile at Salerno, 
where he died with these words on his lips : " I have loved justice 
and hated iniquity, and therefore I die in exile" (1085). 

But the quarrel did not end here. It was taken up by the suc- 
cessors of Gregory, and Henry was again excommunicated. After 



406 THE PAPACY AND THE EMPIRE 

maintaining a long struggle with the power of the Church and 
with his own sons, who were incited to rebel against him, he 
finally died broken-hearted (1106). 

569. Concordat of Worms (1122). — Henry's successors main- 
tained the quarrel with the popes. The outcome of the matter, 
after many years of bitter contention, was the celebrated Con- 
cordat of Worms (11 22). It was agreed that all bishops and 
abbots of the Empire, after free election by those having this 
right, should receive the ring and staff, the symbols of their spir- 
itual jurisdiction, from the Pope, but that the Emperor should 
exercise the right of investiture by the touch of a scepter, the 
emblem of temporal rights and authority. This was a recognition 
by both parties that all spiritual authority emanates from the 
Church and all temporal authority from the State. It was a 
compromise, — "a rendering unto Caesar of the things that are 
Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." 

We must here drop the story of the contentions of Pope and 
Emperor in order to watch the peoples of Europe as at the time 
we have now reached they undertake with surprising unanimity 
and enthusiasm the most remarkable enterprises in which they 
were ever engaged, — the Crusades, or Holy Wars. 

Selections from the Sources. — Dante, De Monarchia (trans, by Au- 
relia Henry). Dante argues that the authority of the Emperor comes direct 
from God and not from the Pope. Henderson, Select Historical Docu- 
ments, pp. 351-409, " Decrees concerning Papal Elections and Documents 
relating to the Controversy over Investiture." Robinson, Readings in 
European History, vol. i, chap. xiii. 

Secondary Works. — Bryce, J., The Holy Roman Empire. This little 
work has become a classic. Bowden, J. W., Life and Pontificate of Gregory 
the Seventh, 2 vols. Lea, H. C, Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church; 
chap, xiv is devoted to Gregory's reforms. Adams, G. B., Civilization dur- 
ing the Middle Ages, chap. x. Emerton, E., Mediceval Europe, chaps, vii 
and viii. Alzog, J., Universal Church History, vol. ii, pp. 253-336 and 
481-510. Tout, T. F., The Empire and the Papacy. Stephens, W. R.W., 
Hildebrand and his Times. Vincent, M. R., The Age of Hildebrand ; 
earlier chapters. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The monastery of Cluny. 2. The 
Sacred College of Cardinals. 3. The Interdict. 



CHAPTER XLVII 

THE CRUSADES 
(1096-1273) 

570. The Crusades defined. — The Crusades were great military 
expeditions carried on intermittently for two centuries by the 
Christian peoples of Europe, with the aim of rescuing from the 
hands of the Mohammedans the holy places of Palestine and 
maintaining in the East a Latin kingdom. Historians usually 
enumerate eight of these expeditions as worthy of special narra- 
tion. Of these eight the first four are often designated the Prin- 
cipal Crusades and the remaining four the Minor Crusades. But 
besides these there were a children's crusade and several other 
expeditions, which, being insignificant in numbers or results, are 
not usually enumerated, as well as several enterprises in Europe 
itself which partook of the nature of crusades. 

571. Causes of the Crusades. — Among the early Christians it 
was thought a pious and meritorious act to undertake a journey 
to some sacred place. Especially was it thought that a pilgrimage 
to the land whose soil had been pressed by the feet of the Saviour 
of the world, to the Holy City that had witnessed his martyrdom, 
was a peculiarly pious undertaking, and one which secured for 
the pilgrim the special favor and blessing of Heaven. 

The Saracen caliphs, for the four centuries and more that they 
held possession of Palestine, pursued usually an enlightened policy 
towards the pilgrims, even encouraging pilgrimages as a source of 
revenue. But in the eleventh century the Seljuk Turks, a promi- 
nent Tartar tribe, zealous proselytes of Islam, wrested Syria from 
the tolerant Saracen caliphs. The Christians were not long in 
realizing that power had fallen into new hands. Pilgrims were 
insulted and persecuted in every way. The churches in Jerusalem 
were, in some cases, destroyed or turned into stables. 

407 



408 THE CRUSADES 

Now if it were a meritorious thing to make a pilgrimage to the 
Holy Sepulcher, much more would it be a pious act to rescue 
the sacred spot from the profanation of infidels. This was the 
conviction that changed the pilgrim into a warrior, — this the 
sentiment that for two centuries and more stirred the Christian 
world to its profoundest depths and cast the population of Europe 
in wave after wave upon Asia. 

Although this religious feeling was the principal cause of the 
Crusades, still there were other concurring causes which must not 
be overlooked. Among these was the restless, adventurous spirit 
of the Teutonic peoples of Europe, who had not as yet outgrown 
their barbarian instincts. The feudal knights and lords, just now 
animated by the rising spirit of chivalry, were very ready to enlist 
in an undertaking so consonant with their martial feelings and 
their new vows of knighthood. 

572. The Council of Clermont (1095). — There is a tradition 
which makes one immediate inciting cause of the First Crusade 
to have been the preaching of a monk named Peter the Hermit, 
a native of France. That the preaching of the monk was of a 
most extraordinary character and produced a deep impression 
upon the popular mind is beyond doubt. But the real originator 
of the First Crusade was Pope Urban, and not the hermit, as the 
legend represents. 

Having been appealed to by the Emperor Alexis Comnenus 
for aid against the Turks, who were now threatening Constanti- 
nople, Urban called a great council of the Church at Piacenza, in 
Italy, to consider the appeal, but nothing was effected at this meet- 
ing. Later in the same year a new council was convened at Cler- 
mont, in France, Urban purposely fixing the place of meeting 
among the warm-tempered and martial Franks. Fourteen arch- 
bishops, two hundred and twenty-five bishops, four hundred 
abbots, and of others a multitude that no man could number, 
crowded to the council. 

After the meeting had considered some minor matters the 
question which was agitating all hearts was brought before it. 
The Pope himself was one of the chief speakers. He possessed 



THE FIRST CRUSADE 409 

the gift of eloquence, so that the man, the cause, and the occasion 
all contributed to the achievement of one of the greatest triumphs 
of human oratory. Urban pictured the humiliation and misery of 
the provinces of Asia ; the profanation of the places made sacred 
by the presence and footsteps of the Son of God ; and then he 
detailed the conquests of the Turks, until now, with almost all 
Asia Minor in their possession, they were threatening Europe 
from the shores of the Hellespont. " When Jesus Christ sum- 
mons you to his defense," exclaimed the eloquent pontiff, "let 
no base affection detain you in your homes ; whoever will aban- 
don his house, or his father, or his mother, or his wife, or his 
children, or his inheritance, for the sake of His name, shall be 
recompensed a hundredfold and possess life eternal." 

Here the enthusiasm of the vast assembly burst through every 
restraint. With one voice they cried, " Dieu le volt! Dieu le 
volt!" (It is the will of God ! It is the will of God !). Thou- 
sands immediately affixed the cross 1 to their garments as a pledge 
of their engagement to go forth to the rescue of the Holy Sepul- 
cher. The following summer was set for the expedition. 

573. The First Crusade (1 096-1099); Founding of the Latin 
Kingdom of Jerusalem. — It was the countries of France and 
Southern Italy that were most deeply stirred by the papal call. 
By edict the Pope had granted to all who should enlist from right 
motives " remission of all canonical penalties," and promised to 
the truly penitent, in case they should die on the expedition, 
" the joy of life eternal." Under such inducements princes and 
nobles, bishops and priests, monks and anchorites, saints and sin- 
ners, rich and poor, hastened to enroll themselves beneath the 
standard of the Cross. " Europe," says Michaud, " appeared to 
be a land of exile, which every one was eager to quit." 

Raymond, Count of Toulouse ; Robert, Duke of Normandy ; 
Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine ; Bohemund, Prince 
of Otranto, and his nephew, Tancred, the " mirror of knight- 
hood," were among the most noted of the leaders of the different 

1 Hence the name " Crusades " given to the Holy Wars, from Old French crois, 
cross. 



410 THE CRUSADES 

divisions of the army which was soon gathered. 2 The expedition 
is said to have numbered about three hundred thousand men. 

The crusaders traversed Europe by different routes and re- 
assembled at Constantinople. Crossing the Bosporus, they first 
captured Nicaea, the Turkish capital in Bithynia, and then set out 
across Asia Minor for Syria. The line of their dreary march 
between Nicaea and Antioch was whitened with the bones of 
nearly one half their number. Arriving at Antioch, the survivors 
captured that place, and then, after considerable delay, pushed 
on towards Jerusalem. 

When at length the Holy City burst upon their view, a perfect 
delirium of joy seized the crusaders. As they moved on, they 
took off their shoes, and marched with uncovered head and bare 
feet, singing the words of the prophet : " Jerusalem, lift up thine 
eyes, and behold the liberator who comes to break thy chains." 
The city was taken by storm. A terrible slaughter of the infidels 
followed. "And if you desire to know what was done with the 
enemy who were found there," thus runs a home letter of one of 
the crusaders, " know that in Solomon's Porch and in his temple 
our men rode in the blood of the Saracens up to the knees of 
their horses." 

The government which the crusaders established for the city and 
country they had conquered was a model feudal state, called the 
Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The code known as the Assizes of 
Jerusalem, which was a late compilation of the rules and customs 
presumably followed by the judges of the little state, forms one of 
the most interesting collections of feudal customs in existence. 

At the head of the kingdom was placed Godfrey of Bouillon, 
the most devoted of the crusader knights. The prince refused 

2 Before the regular armies of the crusaders were ready to move, those who had 
gathered about Peter the Hermit, becoming impatient of delay, urged him to place 
himself at their head and lead them at once to the Holy Land. Dividing command 
of the mixed multitudes with a poor knight called Walter the Penniless, and fol- 
lowed by a throng, it is said, of eighty thousand persons, among whom were many 
women and children, the hermit set out for Constantinople by the overland route. 
Thousands of the crusaders perished miserably of hunger and exposure on the march. 
Those who crossed the Bosporus were surprised by the Turks, and almost all were 
slaughtered. 




EUROPE AND THE ORTENT 
IN 1096 



*nt 



On the eve of the Crusades 



I IChristian LaiHls(Latin Church) I IMonammedau Lan.d3 ;!, 

1 I Christian Lands (.Greek Church) I 1 Kesions sti'.l Paean ,\ 



#1 



100 200 300 400 500 



o E r 



HE M.-N.W0BKS,BUFFAl0, N.Y. 



Scale of Miles 



I 



Xonyitude East 10" fioni Greenwich 



THE SECOND CRUSADE 411 

the title and vestments of royalty, declaring that he would never 
wear a crown of gold in the city where his Lord and Master had 
worn a crown of thorns. The only title he would accept was that 
of " Baron of the Holy Sepulcher." 

Many of the crusaders, considering their vows to deliver the 
Holy City as now fulfilled, soon set out on their return to their 
homes, some making their way back by sea and some by land. 

574. Origin of the Religious Orders of Knighthood. — In the 
interval between the First and the Second Crusade, the two famed 
religious military orders known as the Hospitalers and the Tem- 
plars 3 were formed. A little later, during the Third Crusade, still 
another fraternity known as the Teutonic Knights was established. 
The objects of all the orders were the care of the sick and 
wounded crusaders, the entertainment of Christian pilgrims, the 
guarding of the holy places, and ceaseless battling for the Cross. 
These fraternities soon acquired a military fame that was spread 
throughout the Christian world. They were joined by many of the 
most illustrious knights of the West, and through the gifts of the 
pious acquired great wealth, and became possessed of numerous 
estates and castles in Europe as well as in Asia. 

575. The Second Crusade (1147-1149); Preaching of St. Ber- 
nard; Failure of the Crusade. — In the year 1146 the city of 
Edessa, the outlying bulwark on the side towards Mesopotamia 
of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, was taken by the Turks and 
the entire population slaughtered or sold into slavery. This dis- 
aster threw Europe into a state of the greatest alarm lest the 
little Christian kingdom should be overwhelmed and all the holy 
places should again fall into the hands of the infidels. 

The scenes that marked the opening of the First Crusade were 
now repeated in many of the countries of the West. St. Bernard 

3 The Hospitalers, or Knights of St. John, took their name from the fact that 
the organization was first formed among the monks of the Hospital of St. John 
at Jerusalem; while the Templars, or Knights of the Temple, were so called on 
account of one of the buildings of the brotherhood occupying the site of Solomon's 
Temple. In the case of the Hospitalers it was monks who added to their ordinary 
monastic vows those of knighthood ; in the case of the Templars it was knights who 
added to their military vows those of religion. Thus were united the seemingly 
incongruous ideals of the monk and the knight. 



412 THE CRUSADES 

of Clairvaux, an eloquent monk, was the second Peter the Hermit 
who went everywhere arousing the warriors of the Cross to the 
defense of the birthplace of their religion. The contagion of the 
enthusiasm seized upon not merely barons, knights, and the com- 
mon people, which classes alone participated in the First Crusade, 
but the greatest sovereigns were now infected by it. Louis VII, 
king of France, was led to undertake the crusade through remorse 
for an act of great cruelty against some of his revolted subjects. 
The Emperor Conrad III of Germany was persuaded to leave the 
affairs of his distracted realms in the hands of God and conse- 
crate himself to the defense of the sepulcher of Christ. 

The best part of the strength of both the German and the 
French division of the expedition was wasted in Asia Minor. 
Mere remnants of the armies joined in Palestine. The siege of 
Damascus, which was now undertaken, proved unsuccessful, and 
the crusaders, broken in spirit, returned home. 

576. The Third Crusade (1189-1192); Frederick Barbarossa, 
Saladin, and Richard the Lion-Hearted. — The Third Crusade was 
caused by the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin, the renowned 
sultan of Egypt. This event occurred in the year 1187. The 
intelligence of the disaster caused the greatest consternation and 
grief throughout Christendom. Three of the great sovereigns of 
Europe, Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, Philip Augustus of 
France, and Richard I of England, assumed the cross, and set 
out, each at the head of a large army, for the recovery of the 
Holy City. The English king, Richard, afterwards given the title 
of Cceur de Lion, the " Lion-Hearted," in memory of his heroic 
exploits in Palestine, was the central figure among the Christian 
knights of this crusade. 

The German army, attempting the overland route, after meet- 
ing with the usual troubles in Eastern Europe from the unfriendli- 
ness of the natives, was decimated in Asia Minor by the hardships 
of the march and the swords of the Turks. The Emperor Fred- 
erick was drowned while crossing a swollen stream, and most of 
the survivors of his army, disheartened by the loss of their leader, 
soon returned to Germany. 



THE FOURTH CRUSADE 413 

The English and French kings took the sea route, and finally 
mustered their forces beneath the walls of Acre, which city the 
Christians were then besieging. After one of the longest and 
most costly sieges they ever carried on in Asia, the crusaders at 
last forced the place to capitulate, in spite of all the efforts of 
Saladin to render the garrison relief. 

For two years Richard contended in vain with Saladin, a 
knightly and generous antagonist according to the chroniclers, 
for possession of the. tomb of Christ. He finally concluded with 
him a favorable truce and then set out for home ; but while trav- 
ersing Germany in disguise he was discovered and was arrested 
and imprisoned by order of the Emperor Henry VI, who was his 
political enemy. Henry cast his prisoner into a dungeon, and, 
notwithstanding the outcry of all Europe that the champion of 
Christianity should suffer such treatment at the hands of a brother 
prince, refused to release him without an enormous ransom, which 
was paid by the English people. 

577. The Fourth Crusade (1 202-1204); Capture of Constantino- 
ple by the Latins. — The city of Venice was the rendezvous of the 
Fourth Crusade. It was made up largely of unscrupulous adven- 
turers and the marine forces of Venice. It was originally aimed at 
Egypt but struck Constantinople. A great share of the response 
bility for the diversion of the crusade from its first designation 
lies, it seems, at the door of the Venetians, who, when it was pro- 
posed that the crusaders should undertake to right certain alleged 
wrongs of the imperial family at the Byzantine capital, seeing in 
the proposed adventure an opportunity to further their trade 
interests in the Black Sea regions, took pains to insure that the 
expedition should be launched in that direction. 

The outcome of the crusade was the capture and sack of Con- 
stantinople and the setting up of a Latin prince, Baldwin of 
Flanders, as Emperor of the East (1204). The Empire was now 
remodeled into a feudal state like the Kingdom of Jerusalem 
established by the knights of the First Crusade. Most of the 
Greek islands and certain of the shore lands of the old Empire 
were given to Venice as her share of the spoils. 



414 THE CRUSADES 

The Latin Empire of Constantinople, as it was called, lasted only 
a little over half a century (i 204-1 261). The Greeks, at the end 
of this period, succeeded in regaining the throne, which they then 
held until the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. 

One lamentable consequence of the crusaders' act was the 
weakening of the military strength of the capital. For a thousand 
years Constantinople had been the great bulwark of Western civ- 
ilization against Asiatic barbarism. Its power of resistance was 
now broken, with momentous consequences for Western Christen- 
dom, as we shall learn later (Chapter XLIX). 

578. The Children's Crusade (12 12). — During the interval 
between the Fourth and the Fifth Crusade the religious enthu- 
siasm that had so long agitated the men of Europe came to 
fill with unrest the children, resulting in what is known as the 
Children's Crusade. 

The chief preacher of this crusade was a child about twelve 
years of age, a French peasant lad, named Stephen, who became 
persuaded that Jesus Christ had commanded him to lead a 
crusade of children to the rescue of the Holy Sepulcher. The 
children became wild with excitement and flocked in vast crowds 
to the places appointed for rendezvous. Nothing could restrain 
them or thwart their purpose. "Even bolts and bars," says 
an old chronicler, "could not hold them." The great majority 
of those who collected at the rallying places were boys under 
twelve years of age, but there were also many girls. 

The movement excited the most diverse views. Some declared 
that it was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and quoted such scrip- 
tural texts as these to justify the enthusiasm : " A little child 
shall lead them " ; " Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings 
thou hast perfected praise." Others, however, were quite as con- 
fident that the whole thing was the work of the devil. 

The German children, whose number is variously estimated 
at from twenty to forty thousand, crossed the Alps and marched 
down the Italian shores looking for a miraculous pathway through 
the sea to Palestine. Beneath the toil and hardships of the jour- 
ney a great part of the little crusaders died or fell out by the way. 



"THE MINOR CRUSADES 415 

Those reaching Rome were kindly received by the Pope, who per- 
suaded them to give up their enterprise and return to their homes. 

The French children, numbering thirty thousand, according to 
the chroniclers, set out from the place of rendezvous for Mar- 
seilles. Arriving there, the children were bitterly disappointed 
that the sea did not open and give them passage to Palestine. 
The greater part, discouraged and disillusioned, now returned 
home ; five or six thousand, however, accepting gladly the seem- 
ingly generous offer of two merchants of the city, who proposed 
to take them to the Holy Land free of charge, crowded into 
seven small ships and sailed out of the port of Marseilles. But 
they were betrayed and the most of them sold as slaves in Alex- 
andria and other Mohammedan slave markets. 

This children's expedition marked at once the culmination and 
the decline of the crusading movement. The fervid zeal that 
inspired the first crusaders was already dying out. " These chil- 
dren," said the Pope, referring to the young crusaders, " reproach 
us with having fallen asleep, whilst they were flying to the 
assistance of the Holy Land." 

579. The Minor Crusades ; End of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. 
— The last four expeditions — the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and 
Eighth — undertaken by the Christians of Europe against the 
infidels of the East may be conveniently grouped as the Minor 
Crusades. They were marked by a less genuine enthusiasm than 
that which characterized particularly the First Crusade. The 
flame of the Crusades had burned itself out, and the fate of the 
little Christian kingdom in Asia, isolated from Europe and sur- 
rounded on all sides by bitter enemies, became each day more 
and more apparent. Finally, the last of the places held by the 
Christians fell into the hands of the Moslems, and with this 
event the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem came to an end (12 91). 
The second great combat between Mohammedanism and Chris- 
tianity was over, and " silence reigned along the shore that had 
so long resounded with the world's debate " (Gibbon). 

580. Crusades in Europe. — Notwithstanding the strenuous and 
united efforts which the Christians of Europe put forth against 



416 THE CRUSADES 

the Mohammedans, they did not succeed in extending perma- 
nently the frontiers of Western civilization in the Orient. 

But in the southwest and the northeast of Europe it was differ- 
ent. Here the crusading spirit rescued from Moslem and pagan 
large territories, and upon these regained or newly acquired lands 
established a number of little Christian principalities, which later 
grew into states, or came to form a portion of states, which were 
to play great parts in the history of the following centuries. The 
states whose beginnings are thus connected with the crusading 
age are Portugal, Spain, and Prussia. We will say just a single 
word respecting each of them. 

581. Crusades against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula. — 
Just before the actual beginning of the Crusades against the 
Moslems of the East a band of northern knights went to the help 
of the Christians against the Moslems in the west of the Iberian 
peninsula. The issue of this chivalric enterprise was the forma- 
tion of a little feudal principality, the nucleus of the later kingdom 
of Portugal. At the time of the Second Crusade some German 
and English crusaders, on their way to Palestine by sea, stopped 
here and aided the native Christians in the siege and capture from 
the Mohammedans of the important city of Lisbon (1147). This 
gave the little growing state its future capital. Thus Portugal was, 
in a very strict sense, a creation of the crusading spirit. 

Then during all the time that the Crusades proper were going on 
in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Spanish Christian knights were 
engaged in almost one uninterrupted crusade against the Moslem 
intruders. By the middle of the thirteenth century the Christians 
had crowded the Moors into a small region in the southern part of 
the peninsula. Upon the ground thus regained there arose a num- 
ber of small Christian states which finally coalesced to form the 
modern kingdom of Spain. 

582. Crusades by the Teutonic Knights against the Pagan Slavs 
(1226-1283). — At the time of the Crusades all the Baltic shore 
lands lying eastward of the Vistula and which to-day form a part 
of Prussia were held by pagan Slavs. These people, like the pagan 
Saxons of an earlier time, resisted strenuously the introduction of 



CRUSADES AGAINST THE ALBIGENSES 417 

Christianity among them. Devoted priests who carried the Gos- 
pel to them, together with the converts they made, were often 
massacred. Finally, a crusade was preached against them. 

Early in the thirteenth century (1226) some knights of the 
Teutonic order transferred their crusading efforts to these northern 
heathen lands. For the greater part of the century the knights 
carried on what was a desperate and almost continuous war of 
extermination against the pagans. The surrounding Slav popula- 
tion was either destroyed or subjected, and the whole land was 
gradually Germanized. Thus what was originally Slav territory was 
converted into a German land, and the basis laid of a principality 
which later came to form an important part of modern Prussia. 4 

583. Crusades against the Albigenses (1 209-1 229). — During 
the crusading age holy wars were preached and waged against 
heretics as well as against infidels and pagans. 

In the south of France was a sect of Christians called Albi- 
genses, who had departed so far from the orthodox faith that 
Pope Innocent III declared them to be " more wicked than Sara- 
cens." He therefore, after a vain endeavor to turn them from 
their errors, issued a call for a crusade against them and their 
rich and powerful patron, Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse. 

A great number of French nobles responded eagerly to the call 
of the Church. The leader of the First Crusade (1209-12 13) was 
Simon de Montfort, a man cruel, callous, and relentless beyond 
belief. A great part of Languedoc, the beautiful country of the 
Albigenses, was made a desert, the inhabitants being slaughtered 
and the cities burned. In 1229 the fury of a fresh crusade burst 
upon the Albigenses, which resulted in their prince (Raymond VII) 
ceding the greater part of his beautiful but ravaged provinces to 
Louis IX, king of France, and submitting himself to the Church. 
The Albigensian heresy was soon wholly extirpated by the tribunal 
of the Inquisition which was set up in the country. 

584. Effects upon Civilization of the Crusades. — The indirect 
results of the Crusades were many and far-reaching. Through 

4 See on map of modern Europe how the German territory on the northeast is 
thrust out into the Slavonic mass. 



4i8 



THE CRUSADES 




them the towns gained many advantages at the expense of the 
crusading barons and princes. Ready money in the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries was largely in the hands of the burgher class, 
and in return for the contributions and loans they made to their 
overlords and suzerains they received charters conferring special 
and valuable privileges. The Holy Wars further promoted the 
prosperity of the towns by giving a great impulse to commer- 
cial enterprise. Particularly was this true of the Italian cities. 
The Mediterranean was whitened with 
the sails of their transport ships, which 
were constantly plying between the 
various ports of Europe and the towns 
of the Syrian coast. 

The kings also gained much through 
the Crusades. Many of the nobles who 
set out on the expeditions never re- 
turned, and their estates, through fail- 
ure of heirs, escheated to the crown; 
while many more wasted their fortunes 
in meeting the expenses of their under- 
taking. Thus the nobility were greatly 
weakened in numbers and influence, 
and the power and patronage of the 
kings correspondingly increased. This 
process of the disintegration of feudalism and the growth of mon- 
archy is to be traced most distinctly in France, the cradle and 
center of the crusading movement. 

Again, the effects of the Crusades upon the social and indus- 
trial life of the Western nations were marked and important. 
Giving opportunity for romantic adventure, they were one of the 
chief fostering influences of chivalry ; while by bringing the rude 
peoples of the West in contact with the culture of the East, they 
exerted upon them a general refining influence. Also, various 
arts, manufactures, and inventions (among these the windmill 5 

5 Windmills were chiefly utilized in the Netherlands, where they were used to 
pump the water from the oversoaked lands, and thus became the means of creating 
the most important part of what is now the kingdom of Holland. 



Fig. 114. — A Mediaeval 
Windmill. (From an 
engraving of an abbey and 
its precincts, dating from 
about the middle of the 
fourteenth century) 



EFFECTS OF THE CRUSADES 419 

and probably the mariner's compass) before unknown in Europe 
were at this time introduced from Asia, and contributed to enrich 
and develop the industrial life of the European peoples. Fur- 
thermore, the knowledge of Oriental or Grseco-Arabic science 
and learning gained by the crusaders through their expeditions 
greatly stimulated the Latin intellect and helped to awaken in 
Western Europe that mental activity which resulted finally in 
the great intellectual outburst known as the Renaissance (Chap- 
ter LIII). 

Lastly, the incentive given to geographical exploration led 
various travelers, such as the celebrated Venetian Marco Polo, 
to range over the most remote countries of Asia. Nor did the 
matter end here. Even that spirit of maritime enterprise and 
adventure which rendered illustrious the close of the Middle 
Ages, inspiring the voyages of Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and 
Magellan, may be traced back to that lively interest in geo- 
graphical matters awakened by the expeditions of the crusaders. 

Selections from the Sources. — Chronicles of the Crusades (Bohn). 
Read the chronicle by Geoffrey, who writes as an eyewitness of scenes 
of the Third Crusade. Archer, Crusade of Richard I (English History 
by Contemporary Writers). Translations and Reprints, vol. i, No. 4, 
"Letters of the Crusaders"; also vol. hi, No. 1, "The Fourth Crusade." 
Robinson, Readings in European History, vol. i, chap. xv. Munro and 
Sellery, Mediczval Civilization, pp. 257-268. 

Secondary Works. — Burr, G. L., The Year 1000 and the Antecedents 
of the Crusades (in American Historical Review for April, 1901, vol. vi, 
No. 3); shows the unhistorical character of the tradition of the "millen- 
nial terror." Archer, T. A., and Kingsford, C. L., The Crusades. Cox, 
G. W., The Crusades. Emerton, E-, Mediceval Europe, chap. xi. Adams, 
G. B., Civilization during the Middle Ages, chap. xi. Michaud, J. F., His- 
tory of the Crusades, 3 vols. ; very interesting, but in part discredited through 
a new appraisement of the trustworthiness of the sources for the Crusades. 
Pears, E., The Fall of Constantinople ; the best account of the Fourth 
Crusade. Gray, G. Z., The Children's Crusade. Gibbon, The Decline and 
Tall, chaps, lviii-lxi. Cutts, E. L., Scenes and Characters of the Middle 
Ages, pp. 157-194, "The Pilgrims of the Middle Ages." Lane- Poole, S., 
Saladin, and the Fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The Truce of God. 2. Letters of the cru- 
saders. 3. Incidents of the Fourth Crusade. 4. The Children's Crusade. 



CHAPTER XLVIII 

SUPREMACY OF THE PAPACY; DECLINE OE ITS TEMPORAL 

POWER 

585. Preliminary Survey: the Papacy at its Height. — In an 

earlier chapter on the Empire and the Papacy we related the begin- 
nings of the contention for supremacy between Pope and Emperor. 
In the present chapter we shall first speak of the Papacy at the 
height of its power, and then tell how, as the popes, with the 
Empire ruined, seemed about to realize their ideal of a universal 
ecclesiastical and secular monarchy, their temporal power was 
shattered by a new opposing force, — the rising nations. 

We have already noticed the work of some of the upholders 
of the Papacy, notably that of Pope Gregory VII. Gregory had 
many worthy successors. The most eminent of these were Alex- 
ander III (1159-1181) and Innocent III (1 198-12 16), under 
whom the power of the Papacy was at its height. 

586. Pope Alexander III and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. — 
A little after the settlement known as the Concordat of Worms 
(sec. 569) the first of the House of Hohenstaufen came to the 
German throne, and then began a sharp contention, lasting, with 
intervals of strained peace, for more than a century, between 
the emperors of this proud family and the successive occupants 
of the papal chair. We can here do no more than simply note 
the issue of the quarrel in so far as it concerned Pope Alexan- 
der III and one of the most noted of the Hohenstaufen, Frederick 
Barbarossa, the crusader. After maintaining the contest for many 
years Frederick, vanquished and humiliated, was constrained to 
seek reconciliation at the feet of the pontiff (11 7 7). Precisely 
one hundred years had passed since the like humiliation of the 
Emperor Henry IV (sec. 568). 

587. Pope Innocent III and King John of England. — When one 
of the most powerful of the emperors after Charlemagne was forced 

420 



THE MENDICANT ORDERS 42 I 

thus to bow before the papal throne, we are not surprised to find 
the kings of the different countries subjecting themselves obe- 
diently to the same authority. English history of the period 
covered by the pontificate of Innocent III affords a striking illus- 
tration of the subject relation which the sovereigns of Europe 
had come to sustain to the papal see. The see of Canterbury 
falling vacant, King John ordered the monks who had the right 
of election to give the place to a favorite of his. They obeyed; 
but the Pope immediately declared the election void, and caused 
the vacancy to be filled with one of his own friends, Stephen 
Langton. John declared that the Pope's archbishop should 
never enter England as primate, and proceeded to confiscate 
the estates of the see. Innocent now laid all England under an 
interdict, excommunicated John, and called upon the French 
king, Philip Augustus, to undertake a crusade against the contu- 
macious rebel. 

The outcome of the matter was that John was compelled to 
yield to the power of the Church. He gave back the lands he had 
confiscated, acknowledged Langton to be the rightful primate of 
England, and even went so far as to give England and Ireland to 
the Pope, receiving them back as a perpetual fief (121 3). In token 
of his vassalage he agreed to pay to the papal see the annual sum 
of one thousand marks sterling. This tribute money was actually 
paid, though irregularly, until the reign of Edward III (sec. 591). 

588. The Mendicant Orders, or Begging Friars. 1 — The imme- 
diate successors of Innocent III found a strong support for their 
authority in two new monastic orders known as the Dominican 
and the Franciscan. They were so named after their respective 
founders, St. Dominic (1170-1221) and St. Francis (about 1 182- 
1226). Speaking in general terms, until now the monk had 
sought cloistral solitude primarily in order to escape from the 
world and to work out his own salvation. In the new orders the 
members instead of withdrawing from the world were to remain 
in it and give themselves wholly to the work of securing the 
salvation of others. 

1 From fratres, frdres, brethren. 



422 SUPREMACY OF THE PAPACY 

Again, the orders were also as orders to renounce all earthly 
possessions, and, " espousing Poverty as a bride," to rely entirely 
for support upon the daily and voluntary alms of the pious. 2 
Hitherto, while the individual members of a monastic order must 
espouse extreme poverty, the house or fraternity might possess 
any amount of communal wealth. But in the new orders " the 
brethren must be as poor as the brother." 

The new fraternities grew and spread with marvelous rapidity, 
and in less than a generation they had quite overshadowed all 
the old monastic orders of the Church. The popes conferred 
upon them many and special privileges. They in turn became 
the stanchest friends and supporters of the Roman see. They 
were to the Papacy of the thirteenth century what the later order 
of the Jesuits was to the papal Church of the period of the Ref- 
ormation (sec. 709). 

589. The Revolt of the Nations. — The fourteenth century 
marks the turning point in the history of the temporal power 
of the Papacy. In the course of that century France, Germany, 
and England successively revolted against the Roman see and 
formally denied the right of the Pope to interfere in their political 
or governmental affairs. But it should be carefully noted that 
the leaders of this revolt against the secular domination of the 
Papacy did not think of challenging the spiritual authority of the 
Pope as the supreme head of the Church. Their attitude was 
wholly like that of the Italians of our own day, who, while dis- 
possessing the Pope of the last remnant of his temporal sover- 
eignty, abate nothing of their veneration for him as the Vicar of 
God in all things moral and spiritual. 

590. Pope Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair of France. — It was 
during the pontificate of Boniface VIII (1 294-1303) that the 
secular authority of the popes received a severe blow and began 
rapidly to decline. In the year 1296 Boniface issued a bull in 

2 The friars soon came to interpret their vow of poverty more liberally, and 
believed that they met its obligations when they put the title of the property they 
acquired in the hands of the Pope, while they themselves simply enjoyed the use of 
it. The new fraternities grew in time to be among the richest of the monastic 
orders. 



THE PAPAL COURT AT AVIGNON 423 

which, under pain of excommunication, he forbade all ecclesias- 
tical persons, without papal permission, to pay taxes in any form 
levied by lay rulers. All civil rulers of whatsoever name — baron, 
duke, prince, king, or emperor — who should presume to impose 
upon ecclesiastics taxes of any kind, were also to incur the same 
sentence. 8 

Philip of France regarded the papal claims as an encroachment 
upon the civil authority. The contention between him and the 
Pope speedily grew into a bitter and undignified quarrel. In one 
of his letters to Boniface, Philip addressed the pontiff in words of 
unseemly and studied rudeness. Philip was bold because he knew 
that his people were with him. The popular feeling was given 
expression in a famous States-General which the king summoned 
in 1302, and in another called together the next year. The three 
estates of the realm — the nobility, the clergy, and the commons 
— declared that the Pope had no authority in France in civil 
matters ; that the French king had no superior save God. 

The end was soon reached. At Anagni, in Italy, a band of 
soldiers in the French pay, with every indignity, accompanied by 
blows, made Boniface a prisoner. After three days he was set 
free by friends and returned to Rome, only, however, to be there 
made the victim of fresh insults. In a few days he died, broken- 
hearted, it is said, at the age of eighty-seven (1303). 

By all historians of the rise and decline of the temporal power 
of the popes, the scene at Anagni is placed for historical instruction 
alongside that enacted more than two centuries earlier at Canossa 
(sec. 5 68). The contrasted scenes cannot fail to impress one deeply 
with the vast vicissitudes in the fortunes of the mediaeval Papacy. 

591. Removal of the Papal Seat to Avignon (1 309-1 3 7 6) ; 
Revolt of Germany and England. — In 1309, through the concur- 
rence of various influences, the papal seat was removed from 
Rome to Avignon, in Provence, adjoining the frontier of France. 
Here it remained for a space of nearly seventy years, an era 
known in Church history as the " Babylonian Captivity." While 

3 This is the celebrated bull known as Clericis Laicos. See Henderson's Select 
Historical Documents, p. 432. 



424 SUPREMACY OF THE PAPACY 

it was established here all the popes were Frenchmen and their 
policies were largely dictated by the French kings. Under these 
circumstances it was but natural that outside of France there 
should be stirred up a more and more angry protest against the 
interference of the popes in civil matters. The measures taken 
at this time by the national assemblies of Germany and England, 
in both of which countries a national sentiment was springing up, 
show how completely the Papacy had lost prestige as an inter- 
national power. 

In 1338 the German princes with whom rested the right of 
electing the German king, in opposing the papal claims, declared 
that the German Emperor derived all his powers from God 
through them and not from the Pope. The German Diet indorsed 
this declaration, and the principle that the German Emperor, 
as to his election and the exercise of his functions, is independ- 
ent of the papal see became from that time forward a part of 
the German constitution. 

A little later (in 1366), during the reign of Edward III, the 
English Parliament, acting in a like spirit and temper, put an end 
to English vassalage to Rome by formally refusing to pay the 
tribute pledged by King John, 4 and by repudiating wholly the 
claims of the popes upon England as a fief of the holy see. 

592. The Great Schism (1378-1417). — The stirring of the 
national sentiment in several of the countries of Europe was not 
the only disastrous result to the Papacy of the Babylonian exile. 
The discontent awakened among the Italians by the situation of 
the papal court led to an open rupture between them and the 
French party. In 1378 the opposing factions each elected a 
Pope, and thus there were two heads of the Church, one at 
Avignon and the other at Rome. Such was the beginning of the 
Great Schism (1378). 

The spectacle of two rival popes, each claiming to be the right- 
ful successor of St. Peter, naturally gave the reverence which the 
world had so generally held for the Roman see a rude shock, and 
one from which it never fully recovered. 

4 See sec. 587. The payment of this tribute had fallen in arrears. 



CHURCH COUNCILS OF PISA AND CONSTANCE 425 

593. The Church Councils of Pisa (1409) and Constance (1414- 
1418). — For a generation all Western Christendom was deeply 
agitated by the unseemly quarrel. No peaceful solution of the 
difficulty seemed possible. Some even favored a resort to force. 
The faculties of the University of Paris invited suggestions as to 
the best means of ending the schism. They received ten thousand 
written opinions. The drift of these was in favor of an ecumen- 
ical council. Finally, in 1409, a council of the Church assem- 
bled at Pisa for the purpose of composing the unfortunate feud. 
This council deposed both popes and elected Alexander V as 
the supreme head of the Church. But matters instead of being 
mended hereby were only made worse ; for neither of the deposed 
pontiffs would lay down his authority in obedience to the de- 
mands of the council, and so now there were three popes instead 
of two. 

In 1 4 14 another council was called at Constance for the settle- 
ment of the growing dispute. One of the claimants resigned and 
the other two were deposed. A new pope was then elected, the 
choice of the assembly falling upon an Italian cardinal, who be- 
came Pope Martin V (14 17). In his person the Catholic world 
was again united under a single spiritual head. 

Selections from the Sources. — Henderson, Select Historical Docu- 
ments, p. 430, "John's Concession of England to the Pope "; p. 432, "The 
Bull ' Clericis Laicos.' " The Mirror of Perfection (ed. by Paul Sabatier). 
This is the life of St. Francis written by a companion and disciple. It is a 
wonderful story simply and lovingly told. 

Secondary Works. — Bryce, J., The Holy Roman Empire, chaps, xi 
andxiii. Pastor, L., The History of the Popes, vol. i (Catholic). Emerton, 
E., Mediceval Europe, sections of chaps, ix and x. Barry, W., The Papal 
Monarchy, chaps, xviii-xxv. Balzani, U., The Popes and the Hohenstatifen. 
Tout, T. F., The Empire and the Papacy, chaps, xi, xiv, xvi, and xxi. 
Sabatier, P., Life of St. Francis of Assisi; a book of genius and spiritual 
insight. Jessopp, A., The Coming of the Friars. Creighton, M., History 
of the Papacy, vol. i, "The Great Schism; The Council of Constance." 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. St. Francis of Assisi. 2. St. Dominic. 
3. The popes at Avignon. 



CHAPTER XLIX 
TURANIAN CONQUESTS ; MONGOLS AND TURKS 

594. The Huns and the Hungarians. — The Huns, of whom we 
have already told, were the first Turanians that during historic 
times pushed their way in among the peoples of Europe (sec. 442). 

The next Turanian invaders of Europe that we need here notice 
were the Magyars, or Hungarians, another branch of the Hunnic 
race, who in the ninth century of our era succeeded in thrust- 
ing themselves far into the continent, and establishing there the 
important kingdom of Hungary. These people, in marked con- 
trast to almost every other tribe of Turanian origin, adopted the 
manners, customs, and religion of the peoples about them — 
became, in a word, thoroughly Europeanized, and for a long time 
were the main defense of Christian Europe against the Turkish 
tribes of the same race that followed closely in their footsteps. 

595. The Seljuk Turks. — The Seljuk Turks, so called from the 
name of one of their chiefs, are the next Turanian people who 
thrust themselves prominently upon our notice. It was the cap- 
ture of the holy places in Palestine by this intolerant race and 
their threatening advance toward the Bosporus that alarmed the 
Christian nations of Europe and led to the First Crusade (sec. 571). 

The blows dealt the empire of the Seljuks by the crusaders, and 
disputes respecting the succession, caused the once formidable 
sovereignty to crumble to pieces, only, however, to be replaced by 
others of equally rapid growth, destined to as quick a decay. 

596. The Mongols. — While the power of the Seljuk Turks was 
declining in Western Asia, the Mongols, cruel and untamed nomads 
bred on the steppes of Central and Eastern Asia, that nursery of 
conquering races, began to set up a new dominion among the 
various tribes of Mongolia. Their first great chieftain was Jenghiz 
Khan (1206-12 27), the most terrible scourge that ever afflicted 
the human race. At the head of innumerable hordes composed 

426 



THE MONGOLS 



427 



largely of Turkish tribes, callous and pitiless in their slaughter- 
ings as though their victims belonged to another species than 
themselves, Jenghiz traversed with sword and torch a great part 
of Asia. He conquered all the northern part of China, and then 
turning westward overran Turkestan and Persia. Cities disap- 
peared as he advanced ; populous plains were transformed into 
silent deserts. Before death overtook him he had extended his 
authority to the Dnieper in Russia and to the valley of the Indus. 




Fig. 115. — Hut- Wagon of the Medieval Tartars. (From 
Yule's Book of Ser Marco Polo) 

The wandering Scyths who dwell 

In latticed huts high-poised on easy wheels. 

TEschylus, Prom. Vinct., 709-710; quoted by Yule 



Even in death he claimed his victims : at his tomb forty maidens 
were slain that their spirits might go to serve him in the other 
world. 

The vast domains of Jenghiz passed into the hands of his son 
Oktai (d. 1 241), a worthy successor of the great conqueror. He 
pushed outwards still further the boundaries of the empire in the 
east as well as in the west of Asia, and made a threatening inva- 
sion of Europe. In the space of two or three terrible years 
(1 238-1 241) almost half of Europe (a large part of Russia, 
Poland, and Hungary) was pitilessly ravaged. 



428 TURANIAN CONQUESTS 

One of the most noted of the successors of Oktai was Kublai 
Khan (1259— 1294), who made Cambalu, the modern Peking, his 
royal seat, and there received ambassadors and visitors from all 
parts of the world. It was at the court of this prince that the 
celebrated Italian traveler Marco Polo resided many years and 
gained that valuable and quickening knowledge of the Far East 
which he communicated to Europe in his remarkable work of 
travels and observations. 

Upon the death of Kublai Khan the immoderately extended 
and loosely knit empire fell into disorder and separated into 
many petty states. It was restored by Timur, or Tamerlane 
(1369—1405)^ remote relative of Jenghiz Khan. His dominions 
came to embrace a great part of Asia. 

Timur's immense empire crumbled to pieces after his death. 
His descendant Baber invaded India (1525) and established 
there what became known as the Kingdom of the Great Moguls. 
This Mongol state lasted over two hundred years, — until destroyed 
by the English in the eighteenth century. The magnificence of 
the court of the Great Moguls at Delhi and Agra is one of the 
most splendid traditions of the East. 

Asia has never recovered from the terrible devastation wrought 
by the Mongol conquerors. Many districts swarming with life 
were swept clean of their population by these destroyers of the 
race and have remained to this day desolate as the tomb. But it 
is the relation of the Mongol eruption to the history of the West 
that chiefly concerns us at present. This revolution had signifi- 
cance for European history almost solely on account of the Mon- 
gols having laid the yoke of their power for a long time — for 
about three centuries — upon the Eastern Slavs. This was some 
such calamity for Russia as the later conquests of the Ottoman 
Turks were for the lands of Southeastern Europe. 

597. The Beginnings of the Ottoman l Empire. — The latest, 
most permanent, and most important historically of all the Tura- 
nian sovereignties was that established by the Ottoman Turks. 

1 From Othman I (1288-1326), or Osman, whence not only "Ottoman," but 
" Osmanlis," the favorite name which the Turks apply to themselves. 



THE JANIZARIES 



429 



The nucleus of this great empire was a little state set up in Asia 
Minor about the middle of the thirteenth century by a band of 
Turkish warriors. Gradually the Ottoman princes subjected to 
their rule the surrounding tribes, and at the same time seized 
upon province after province of the Asiatic possessions of the 
Byzantine emperors. During the reign of Amurath I (1 360-1 389) 
a large part of the regions that came to be known as Turkey in 
Europe fell into their hands. 

598. The Janizaries. — The conquests of the Turks were greatly 
aided by a remarkably efficient body of soldiers known as the 
Janizaries, which was organized early in the fourteenth century. 




The Empire of the Ottoman Turks about 1464 

This select corps was composed at first of the fairest children of 
Christian captives, who were brought up in the Mohammedan 
faith. When war ceased to furnish recruits, the sultans levied a 
tribute of children on their Christian subjects. At one time this 
tribute amounted to two thousand boys yearly. This method of 
recruiting the corps was maintained for about three centuries. 

599. The Fall of Constantinople (1453).- — The fall of Con- 
stantinople was delayed for a time by the attacks of the Mongols 
upon the Ottomans in Asia. But finally, in the year 1453, Moham- 
med II the Great (1451-1480) laid siege to the capital with a 
vast army and fleet. After a short investment the place was taken 
by storm. Of the hundred thousand inhabitants of the capital 
forty thousand are said to have been slain and fifty thousand 



430 TURANIAN CONQUESTS 

made slaves. The Cross on the dome of St. Sophia was replaced 
by the Crescent. 

Thus fell New Rome into the hands of the barbarians of the 
East almost an exact millennium after Old Rome had passed into 
the possession of the barbarians of the West. Its fall was one of 
the most harrowing and fate -laden events in history. As Moham- 
med, like Scipio at Carthage, gazed upon the ruined city and the 
empty palace of Constantine, he is said, impressed by the muta- 
bility of fortune, to have repeated musingly the lines of the Persian 
poet Firdusi : " The spider's web is the curtain in Caesar's palace ; 
the owl is the sentinel on the watchtower of Afrasiab." 2 

The Turks have ever remained quite insensible to the influences 
of European civilization. They have always been looked upon as 
intruders in Europe, and their presence there has led to several 
of the most sanguinary wars of modern times. Gradually they are 
being pushed out from their European possessions, and the time is 
probably not remote when they will be driven back across the Bos- 
porus, just as the Moslem Moors were expelled long ago from the 
opposite corner of the continent by the Christian chivalry of Spain. 

Selections from the Sources. — The Book of Ser Marco Polo, 2 vols, 
(trans, by Henry Yule ; new ed. revised by Henri Cordier). The best part 
of these volumes is condensed in Noah Brooks, The Story of Marco Polo. 
Marco Polo resided seventeen years at the court of Kublai Khan at Cam- 
balu, the modern Peking. He saw the Mongol court at the time of its great- 
est brilliancy and gave Europe a vivid description of what he observed and 
heard in an account which our growing knowledge of the Far East is giving 
a constantly higher reputation for accuracy and honesty. 

Secondary Works. — Howorth, H. H., History of the Mongols from the 
Ninth to the Nineteenth Century, 3 parts. The best and most comprehensive 
work on the subject. Creasy, E. S., History of the Ottoman Turks, chaps, 
i-vi. Gibbon, The Decline and Fall, chaps, lxiv-lxviii. Mijatovich, C, 
Constantine, the Last Emperor of the Greeks; or the Conquest of Constanti- 
nople by the Turks (A.D. 1453) > tne k est account in English. Poole, 
S. L., The Story of Turkey, chaps, i-vii. Freeman, E. A., The Ottoman 
Power in Europe, chaps, i— iv. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Marco Polo at the Mongol court. 2. The 
Mongols in Russia. 3. The capture of Constantinople by the Turks. 

2 Afrasiab is the name of a personage who figures in the legends, of Persia. 



CHAPTER L 



THE GROWTH OF THE TOWNS 



600. Rapid Development of the Cities in the Tenth and Eleventh 
Centuries. — The old Roman towns, as points of attack and 
defense, suffered much during the period of the barbarian inva- 
sions. When the storm had passed, many of the once strong- 
walled towns lay "rings of ruins" on the wasted plains. But it 
was not alone the violence of the destroyers of the Empire that 




Fig. i 16. — The Amphitheater at Arles in Medieval Times 

" The amphitheater was made a fortress, packed with houses, in the eighth 
century, on account of Saracen incursions." — Smith, The Troubadours 
at Home 

brought so many cities to ruin ; what chiefly caused their depopu- 
lation and decay was the preference of the barbarians for the open 
country to the city. Up to the eleventh century the population of 
Europe was essentially a rural population like that of Russia to-day. 
But just as soon as the invaders had settled down and civiliza- 
tion had begun to revive, the towns began gradually to assume 
somewhat of their former importance. During the tenth century 

43 1 



432 THE GROWTH OF THE TOWNS 

Western Europe, it will be recalled, was terribly troubled by the 
Northmen, the Hungarians, and the Saracens (sec. 547). There 
being no strong central government, the cities, thrown upon their 
own resources for defense, armed their militia, and above all else 
surrounded themselves with walls. Strong walls were the only 
sure protection in those evil times. Thus Europe became thick- 
set with strong-walled cities, the counterpart of the castles of the 
feudal lords, which were the defense of the countryside. 

601. The Towns enter the Feudal System; their Revolt. — 
When feudalism took possession of Europe the cities became 
a part of the system. They became vassals and suzerains. As 
vassals, they were of course subjected to all the incidents of 
feudal ownership. They owed allegiance to their suzerain, were 
he baron, prince, prelate, king, or emperor, and must pay him 
feudal tribute and aid him in his war enterprises. As the cities, 
through their manufactures and trade, were the most wealthy 
members of the feudal system, the lords naturally looked to them 
for money when in need. Their demands and exactions at last 
became unendurable, and a long struggle broke out between them 
and the burghers. 

The advantage in the end rested with the burghers. In process 
of time the greater number of the towns of the countries of West- 
ern Europe either bought with money or wrested by force of arms 
charters from their lords or suzerains. This was a great gain ; and 
as, under the protection of their charters, the cities grew in wealth 
and population, many of them in some countries became at last 
strong enough to cast off all actual dependence upon lord or king, 
became in effect independent states, — little commonwealths. 
Especially was this true in the case of the Italian cities, and in a 
less marked degree in the case of some of the German towns. 

602 . The Industrial Life of the Towns ; the Gilds. — The 
towns were the workshops of the later Middle Ages. The most 
noteworthy characteristics of their industrial life are connected 
with certain corporations or fraternities known as gilds. There 
were two chief classes of these, the gild merchant and the craft 
gilds. The members of the gild merchant, speaking generally, 



THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE 433 

were the chief landowners and traders of the place. The craft 
gilds were unions of the shoemakers, the bakers, the weavers, the 
spinners, the dyers, the millers, and so on to the end. In some 
cities there were upwards of fifty of these associations. 

The internal history of the towns during the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries is very largely the story of the gilds in their 
manifold activities. This story, however, it is impossible to give 
even in outline in our short space. We must content ourselves 
with having merely indicated the place of these interesting frater- 
nities in the life of the mediaeval towns. 

603. The Hanseatic 1 League. — When, in the eleventh and 
twelfth centuries, the towns of Northern Europe began to extend 
their commercial connections, the greatest drawback to their 
trade was the insecurity and disorder that everywhere prevailed. 
The trader who intrusted his goods to the overland routes was in 
danger of losing them at the hands of the robber nobles, who 
watched all the lines of travel and either robbed the merchant 
outright or levied an iniquitous toll upon his goods. Nor was 
the way by sea beset with less peril. Piratical crafts scoured the 
waters and made booty of any luckless merchantman they might 
overpower or lure to wreck upon the dangerous shores. 

This state of things led some of the German cities, about the 
middle of the fourteenth century, to form, for the protection of 
their merchants, an alliance called the Hanseatic League. The 
confederation eventually embraced eighty or more of the principal 
towns of North Germany. In order to facilitate the trading opera- 
tions of its members, the league established in different foreign 
cities trading posts and warehouses. The four most noted centers 
of the trade of the confederation were the cities of Bruges, Lon- 
don, Bergen, Wisby, and Novgorod. The league thus became a 
vast monopoly, which endeavored to control in the interests of its 
own members the entire commerce of Northern Europe. 

Numerous causes concurred to undermine the prosperity of the 
Hansa towns and to bring about the dissolution of the league. 
Among these were the great maritime discoveries of the fifteenth 

1 From the old German hansa, a confederation or union. 



434 THE GROWTH OF THE TOWNS 

and sixteenth centuries, which transferred the centers of com- 
mercial activity as well from the Baltic as from the Mediterranean 
ports to the harbors on the Atlantic seaboard, and the Reforma- 
tion and the accompanying religious wars in Germany, which 
brought many of the Hansa towns to utter ruin. 

604. Causes of the Early Growth of the Italian Cities. — But it 
was in Italy that the mediaeval cities acquired the greatest power 
and influence. Several things conspired to promote their early 
and rapid development, but a main cause of their prosperity was 
their trade with the East, and the enormous impulse given to this 
commerce by the Crusades. 

With wealth came power, and all the chief Italian cities became 
distinct, self-governing states, with just a nominal dependence 
upon Pope or Emperor. Towards the close of the thirteenth 
century Northern and Central Italy was divided among about 
two hundred contentious little city-republics. Italy had become 
another Greece. 

605. The Rise of Despots. — The constant wars of the Italian 
cities with each other and the incessant strife of parties within 
each city led to the same issue as that to which tended the end- 
less contentions and divisions of the Greek cities in ancient times. 
Their democratic institutions were overthrown, and by the end 
of the thirteenth century a large part of the city-republics of 
Northern and Central Italy had fallen into the hands of domestic 
tyrants, many of whom by their crimes rendered themselves as 
odious as the worst of the tyrants who usurped supreme power in 
the cities of ancient Hellas (sec. 153). 

We shall now relate some circumstances, for the most part of 
a commercial or social character, which concern some of the most 
renowned of the Italian city-states. 

606. Venice. — Venice, the most famous of the Italian cities, 
had its beginnings in the fifth century in the rude huts of some 
refugees who fled out into the marshes of the Adriatic to escape 
the fury of the Huns of Attila (sec. 443). Century after century 
conquests and negotiations gradually extended the possessions 
of the island republic, until she finally came to control the coast 



VENICE AND GENOA 



435 



and waters of the Eastern Mediterranean in much the same way 
that Carthage had mastery of the Western Mediterranean at the 
time of the First Punic War. Even before the Crusades her trade 
with the East was very extensive, and by those expeditions was 
expanded into enormous dimensions. 

Venice was at the height of her power during the thirteenth, 
fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Her supremacy on the sea 
was celebrated each year by the unique ceremony of " Wedding 
the Adriatic " by the dropping of a ring into the sea. The origin of 
this custom was as follows. In the year 1 1 77 Pope Alexander III, 
out of gratitude to the Venetians for services rendered him, gave 
a ring to the Doge with these words : "Take this as a token of 
dominion over the sea, and wed her every year, you and your 
successors forever, in order that all may know that the sea belongs 
to Venice and is subject to her as a bride is subject to her hus- 
band." This ceremony was one of the most brilliant spectacles 
of the Middle Ages. 

The decline of Venice dates from the fifteenth century. The 
conquests of the Ottoman Turks during this century deprived her 
of much of the territory she held east of the Adriatic, and finally 
the discovery of the New World by Columbus and of an unbroken 
water route to India by Vasco da Gama gave a deathblow to her 
commerce. From this time on the trade with the East was to be 
conducted from the Atlantic ports instead of from those in the 
Mediterranean. 

607. Genoa. — Genoa, on the old Ligurian coast, was, after 
Venice, the most powerful of the Italian maritime cities. The 
period of her greatest prosperity dates from the recapture of 
Constantinople from the Latins by the Greeks in 126 1; for the 
Genoese had assisted the Greek princes in the recovery of their 
throne, and as a reward were shown commercial favors by the 
Greek emperors. The jealousy with which the Venetians regarded 
the prosperity of the Genoese led to oft-renewed war between the 
two rival republics. For nearly two centuries their hostile fleets 
contended, as did the navies of Rome and Carthage, for the 
supremacy of the sea. 



436 THE GROWTH OF THE TOWNS 

The merchants of Genoa, like those of Venice, reaped a rich 
harvest during the Crusades. Their prosperity was brought to an 
end by the irruption of the Mongols and Turks, and the capture 
of Constantinople by the latter in 1453. The Genoese traders 
were now driven from the Black Sea, and their traffic with Eastern 
Asia was completely broken up. 

608. Florence. — Florence, " the most illustrious and fortunate 
of Italian republics," although from her inland location upon the 
Arno shut out from engaging in those naval enterprises that 
conferred wealth and importance upon the coast cities of Venice 
and Genoa, became, notwithstanding, through the skill, industry, 
enterprise, and genius of her citizens, the great manufacturing, 
financial, literary, and art center of the later mediaeval centuries. 
The list of her illustrious citizens is more extended than that of 
any other city of mediaeval times ; and indeed, as respects the 
number of her great men, Florence is perhaps unrivaled by any 
city of the ancient or modern world save Athens. In her long 
roll of fame we find the names of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, 
Machiavelli, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Ame- 
rigo Vespucci, and the Medici. 2 

609. Services of the Mediaeval Towns to Civilization. — Modern 
civilization inherited much from each of the three great centers 
of mediaeval life, — - the monastery, the castle, and the town. We 
have noticed what came out of cloister and baronial hall, what 
the monk and what the baron contributed to civilization (sees. 492 
and 551). We must now see what came out of the town, — what 
contribution the burgher made to European life and culture. 

In the first place, the towns were the centers of the industrial 
and commercial life of the Middle Ages, and laid the foundations 
of that vast system of international exchange and traffic which 
forms a characteristic feature of modern European civilization. 

In the second place, the mediaeval cities, along with the mon- 
asteries, were the foster home of architecture, sculpture, and 

2 The Medici were enlightened despots. The two most distinguished names of the 
family are those of Cosimo de' Medici (1389-1464), who was called the " Friend of 
the People and the Father of his Country," and Lorenzo, his grandson (1448-1492). 



SERVICES TO CIVILIZATION OF THE TOWNS 437 

painting. These things, as has been well said, are " the beauti- 
ful flowers of free city life." The old picturesque high-gabled 
houses, the sculptured guildhalls, the artistic gateways, the superb 
palaces, and the imposing cathedrals found in so many of the 




Fig. 117. — The Cologne Cathedral. (From a photograph) 

This edifice was begun in the eleventh century, but was not finished until our 
own day (1880). It is one of the most imposing monuments of Gothic 
architecture in the world 

cities of Europe to-day bear witness to the important place 
which the mediaeval towns hold in the history of architecture 
and art. 3 

In the third place, the towns were the birthplace of modern 
political liberty. The inhabitants of the towns grew into a new 
order destined to a great political future, the so-called Third 



3 The enthusiasm for church building was most marked in the twelfth and thir- 
teenth centuries. The style of architecture first employed was the Romanesque, 
characterized by the rounded arch and the dome ; but towards the close of the 
twelfth century this was superseded by the Gothic, distinguished by the pointed arch, 
the slender spire, and rich ornamentation. 



438 THE GROWTH OF THE TOWNS 

Estate, or Commons.* During the course of the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries the representatives of the towns came to sit 
along with the nobles and the clergy in the national diets or par- 
liaments of the different countries. 5 What this meant for the 
development of modern parliamentary government we shall learn 
later. 

In the fourth place, it was the most typical of the free cities, 
those of Italy, which gave to the world the Renaissance, that 
great essentially intellectual movement which marked the latter 
part of the Middle Ages. The relation of the Italian cities to this 
mental awakening will be made the subject of a section further on 
(sec. 670). 

Selections from the Sources. — Lee, Source-Book, sec. 56, " Charter of 
the City of London (from Henry I)." Colby, Selections, p. 70, "A Town 
Charter." Translations and Reprints, vol. ii, No. 1, "English Towns and 
Gilds." Robinson, Readings in European History, vol. i, chap, xviii (last 
part). 

Secondary Works. — Guizot, F. P. G., History of Civilization in 
Europe, Lect. vii, " Rise of the Free Cities." Green, Mrs. J. R., Town 
Life in the Eifteenth Century. Zimmern, H., The Hansa Towns. Symonds, 
J. A., Age of the Despots, chaps, iii and iv. Hazlitt, W. C, The Venetian 
Republic, 2 vols. ; the standard authority in English. Thayer, W. R., A 
Short History of Venice. Emerton, E., Mediaeval Europe, chap, xv (last 
part). Cheyney, E. P., An Introductio7i to the Industrial and Social His- 
tory of England, chaps, iii and iv. Munro, D. C, and Sellery, G. C, 
Mediaeval Civilization, pp. 358-365. Mrs. Oliphant, Makers of Venice. 
In the " Mediaeval Towns " series there are separate volumes on Florence, 
Nuremberg, Bruges, etc., which contain chapters of interest. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The gilds. 2. Frederick Barbarossa 
and Milan. 3. The Carroccio. 4. The Wedding of the Adriatic. 5. St. 
Mark's at Venice. 6. Cathedral building. 

4 In England the men of the rural districts, that is of the counties, formed from 
the first, or almost from the first, a part of this order. In other countries, however, 
it was not until a later time that the rural class came to reenforce the new estate. 

5 See sees. 621 and 640. 



CHAPTER LI 
THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE SCHOOLMEN 

6 io. The Rise and Early Growth of the Universities. — It will 
be recalled that a significant feature of the work of Charlemagne 
was the establishment of schools in connection with the cathedrals 
and monasteries of his realm (sec. 533). From the opening of the 
ninth till well on into the eleventh century the lamp of learning 
was fed in these Church schools, although throughout the tenth 
century the flame burned very low. 

But about the opening of the twelfth century a new intellectual 
movement began to stir Western Christendom. This mental 
revival was caused by many agencies, particularly by the quicken- 
ing influence of the Graeco-Arabian culture in Spain and the 
Orient, with which the Christian West was just now being brought 
into closer contact through the Crusades. As a consequence of 
this newly awakened intellectual life there arose a demand for a 
more secular system of education than that given in the cloister 
schools, — one that should prepare a person for entering upon a 
professional career as a physician, lawyer, or statesman. 1 

It was in response to these new demands that the universities 
came into existence. Some of these were mere expansions of 
cathedral or monastery schools] others developed out of lay 
schools which had grown up in commercial towns. Three of the 
most ancient universities were the University of Salerno, noted 
for its teachers in medicine ; the University of Bologna, frequented 
for its instruction in law ; and the University of Paris, revered for 
the authority of its doctors in theology. The University of Paris 

1 The number of faculties in the mediaeval university was not fixed. A usual 
number was four, — the Faculty of Theology, the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty 
of Law, and the Faculty of Arts (or Philosophy). The course in arts embraced what 
is to-day covered by the courses in letters and science, and served as a preparation 
for entrance upon one of the three specialized professional courses, though most of 
the students never went beyond it. 

439 



440 THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE SCHOOLMEN 

gave constitution and rules to so many as to earn the designation 
of " the Mother of Universities and the Sinai of the Middle Ages." 
6n. Students and Student Life. — The number of students in 
attendance at the mediaeval universities was large. Contempo- 
raries tell of crowds of fifteen, twenty, and even thirty thousand 
at the most popular institutions. These numbers are doubtless 
exaggerated, but that the attendance was numerous is certain, for 




Fig. 118. — University Audience in the Fifteenth Century 
(From Geiger's Renaissance und Humanismus) 

in those times all who were eager to acquire knowledge must 
needs seek some seat of learning, since the scarcity and great 
cost of manuscript books put home study out of the question. 
Then, again, many of the pupils attending the nonprofessional 
courses were mere boys of twelve or thereabouts, — the high-school 
pupils of to-day; while, on the other hand, the student body 
embraced many mature men, among whom were to be counted 
canons, deans, archdeacons, and other dignitaries. 



BRANCHES OF STUDY 



441 



Student life in the earlier university period, before the dormi- 
tory and college system was introduced, was unregulated and 
shamefully disorderly. The age was rough and lawless, and the 
student class were no better than their age ; indeed, in some 
respects they seem to have been worse. For the student body 
included many rich young profligates, who found the universities 
the most agreeable places for idling away their time, as well as 
many wild and reckless characters who were constantly engaging 
in tavern brawls, terrorizing the townsmen at night, even waylay- 
ing travelers on the public roads, and committing " many other 
enormities hateful to God." 

612. Branches of Study and Methods of Instruction. — The 
advanced studies given greatest prominence in the universities 
were the three professional branches of theology, medicine, and 
law. The natural sciences can hardly be said to have existed, 
although in alchemy lay hidden the germ of chemistry and in 
astrology that of astronomy. The Ptolemaic theory, which made 
the earth the stationary center of the revolving celestial spheres, 
gave color and form to all conceptions of the structure of the 
universe. 

The method of instruction in all the university departments 
was the same. It was a servile study of texts, which were regarded 
with a veneration bordering on superstition. Not even in the 
physical sciences was there any serious appeal to experience, 
to observation, to experiment. In anatomy discussions took the 
place of dissections. 2 Books were considered better authority 
than nature herself. "Aristotle," says Ueberweg, "was regarded 
as the founders of religions are wont to be considered." One 
venturing to criticise this " Master of those who know " was 
looked upon as presumptuous and irreverent. 

613. Scholasticism; the Province of the Schoolmen. — Spring- 
ing up within the early ecclesiastical schools and developed within 
the later universities, there came into existence a method of 
philosophizing which, from the place of its origin, was called 

2 At Bologna, where anatomical study was most advanced, each student wit- 
nessed only one dissection during the year. 



442 THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE SCHOOLMEN 

Scholasticism, while its representatives were called Schoolmen, 
or Scholastics. The chief task of the Schoolmen was the reducing 
of Christian doctrines to scientific form, the harmonizing of reve- 
lation and reason, of faith and science. Viewed in this light, it 
was not altogether unlike that theological philosophy of the pres- 
ent day whose aim is to harmonize the Bible with the facts of 
modern science. 

614. Peter Abelard. — The most eminent of the early School- 
men was Peter Abelard (1079-1142). Such a teacher the world 
had probably not produced since Socrates enchained the youth 
of Athens. At Paris over five thousand pupils are said to have 
thronged his lecture room. Driven by the shame of a public 
scandal to seek retirement, he hid himself first in a monastery 
and later in a solitude near the city of Troyes. But his admirers 
followed him into the wilds in such multitudes that a veritable 
university sprang up around him in his desert retreat. 

Abelard's brilliant reputation as a philosopher was tarnished 
by grave faults of character. Intrusted with the education of a 
fascinating and mentally gifted maiden, Heloi'se by name, Abelard 
betrayed the confidence reposed in him. A secret marriage bound 
in a tragic fate the lives of teacher and pupil. The " tale of Abe- 
lard and Heloi'se " forms one of the most romantic yet saddest 
traditions of the twelfth century. 

615. Scholasticism in the Thirteenth Century. — The thirteenth 
century was the great age of Scholasticism. Its most illustrious 
representatives during this period were Albertus Magnus, or 
"Albert the Great" (d. 1280), who was called "the second 
Aristotle," and Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), known as "the 
Angelic Doctor." As philosophers these Schoolmen stand to 
each other in some such relation as did Plato and Aristotle, nor 
are their names unworthy of being linked with the names of those 
great thinkers of ancient Greece. The reputation of Aquinas as 
the greatest Scholastic and theologian of the Middle Ages rests 
largely upon his prodigious work entitled Summa Theologice, or 
" Sum of Theology." The work is regarded as the standard of 
orthodoxy in the Catholic Church. 



THE DECLINE OF SCHOLASTICISM 443 

The most noteworthy representative of the scientific activity of 
the Scholastic age was the English Franciscan friar, Roger Bacon 
(d. 1294), called "the Wonderful Doctor," on account of his 
marvelous knowledge of mechanics, optics, chemistry, and other 
sciences. He understood the composition of gunpowder, or a 
similar explosive, and seemingly the nature of steam ; for in one 
of his works he says that " wagons and ships could be built which 
would propel themselves with the swiftness of an arrow, without 
horses and without sails." His contemporaries believed him to 
be in league with the devil. He suffered persecution and was 
imprisoned for fourteen years. 

616. The Decline of Scholasticism ; Services of the Schoolmen 
to Intellectual Progress. — The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 
witnessed the decline of Scholasticism. In this period Scholastic 
debate in the hands of unworthy successors of the earlier great 
philosophers fell away for the most part into barren disputations 
over idle and impossible questions. The Schoolmen sank in pub- 
lic estimation and gave place to the humanists (sec. 671). 

But notwithstanding this degeneracy of Scholasticism, the 
Schoolmen as a whole rendered a great service to the intel- 
lectual progress of Europe. By their ceaseless debates they 
sharpened the wits of men, created activity of thought and deft- 
ness in argument. They made the universities of the time real 
mental gymnasia, in which the young awakening mind of Europe 
was trained and strengthened for its later work. 

Selections from the Sources. — Translations and Reprints, vol. ii, 
No. 3, "The Mediaeval Student." Henderson, Select Historical Docu- 
ments, pp. 262-266, " The Foundation of the University of Heidelberg. 

Secondary Works. — Rashdall, H., The Universities of Europe in the 
Middle Ages, 2 vols. Laurie, S. S., The Rise and Early Constitution of 
Universities. CoMPAYRE, G., Abelard, and the Origin and Early History 
of Universities. Jessop, A., The Coming of the Friars, chap, vi, " The 
Building up of a University." Emerton, E., Mediaeval Europe, chap. xiii. 
Gallienne, Richard Le, Old Love Stories Retold, "Abelard and Heloise." 
Munro, D. C, and Sellery, G. C, Mediaeval Civilization, pp. 348-357. 
Turner, W., History of Philosophy, chaps, xxiv-xlvii. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The "Nations" at the universities. 
2. Student life. 3. Abelard and St. Bernard. 4. Roger Bacon. 



CHAPTER LII 

GROWTH OF THE NATIONS : FORMATION OF NATIONAL 
GOVERNMENTS AND LITERATURES 

617. Introductory. — The most important political movement 
that marked the latter part of the Middle Ages was the fusion, in 
several of the countries of Europe, of the petty feudal principal- 
ities and half-independent cities and communes into great nations 
with strong centralized governments. This movement was accom- 
panied by, or rather consisted in, the decline of feudalism as a 
governmental system, the loss by the cities of their freedom, and 
the growth of the power of the kings. 

In some countries, however, conditions were opposed to this 
centralizing tendency, and in these the Modern Age was reached 
without nationality having been found. But in England, in France, 
and in Spain circumstances all seemed to tend towards unity, and 
by the close of the fifteenth century there were established in 
these countries strong despotic monarchies. Yet even among 
those peoples where national governments did not appear, some 
progress was made towards unity through the formation of national 
languages and literatures, and the development of common feel- 
ings and aspirations, so that these races or peoples were manifestly 
only awaiting the opportunities of a happier period for the matur- 
ing of their national life. 

The rise of monarchy and decline of feudalism, this substitu- 
tion of strong centralized governments in place of the feeble, 
irregular, and conflicting rule of the feudal nobles or of other 
local authorities, was a very great gain to the cause of law and 
good order. It paved the way for modern progress and civilization. 

I. England 

618. General Statement. — In earlier chapters we told of the 
origin of the English people and traced their growth under Saxon, 
Danish, and Norman rulers. In the present sections we shall tell 

444 



\ 2 5 2" * 6 5~~ 

\ \ \ \ \ 

ANGEVIN DOMINIONS 

Scale of Miles 
g 50 100 150 200 



J Countries held by Vassals from Henry II. 
] Held by Henry II from a superior king. 
] Held by Henry II in his own right. 



THE ENGLISH POSSESSIONS IN FRANCE 445 

very briefly the story of their fortunes under the Plantagenet 1 
house and its branches, thus carrying on our narrative to the 
accession of the Tudors in 1485, from which event dates the 
beginning of the modern history of England. 

The chief events of the period which we shall notice were the 
loss of the English possessions in France, the wresting of Magna 
Carta from King John, the formation of the House of Commons, 
the conquest of Wales, the wars with Scotland, the Hundred 
Years' War with France, and the Wars of the Roses. 

619. Loss of the English Possessions in France (1 202-1 204). 
— The issue of the battle of Hastings, in 1066, made William of 
Normandy king of England. But we must bear in mind that he 
still held his possessions in France as a fief from the French king, 
whose vassal he was. These Continental lands, save for some 
short intervals, remained under the rule of William's Norman suc- 
cessors in England. Then, when Henry, Count of Anjou, came 
to the English throne as the first of the Plantagenets (sec. 563), 
these territories were greatly increased by the French posses- 
sions of that prince. The larger part of Henry's dominions, 
indeed, was in France, the whole of the western half of the 
country being in his hands ; but for all of this he of course paid 
homage to the French king. 

As was inevitable, a feeling of intense jealousy sprang up between 
the two sovereigns. The French king was ever watching for some 
pretext upon which he might deprive his rival of his possessions 
in France. The opportunity came when John, in 1 199, succeeded 
Richard the Lion-Hearted as king of England. Twice that odious 
tyrant was summoned by Philip Augustus of France to appear 
before his French peers and clear himself of certain charges, one 
of which was the murder of his nephew Arthur. John refused to 
obey the summons. Philip was finally able, so strong was the 
feeling against John, to dispossess him of all his lands in France, 
save a part of Aquitaine in the south. 

The loss of these lands was a great gain to England. The 
Angevin kings had been pursuing a policy which, had it been 

1 The name Plantagenet came from the peculiar badge, a sprig of broom plant 
(plante de ge?iet), adopted by one of the early members of the house. 



446 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

successful, would have made England a subordinate part of a 
great Continental state. That danger was now averted. 

620. Magna Carta (12 15). — Magna Carta, the " Great Char- 
ter," held sacred as the safeguard of English liberties, was an 
instrument which the English barons and clergy wrested from 
King John, and in which the ancient rights and privileges of the 
people were clearly defined and guaranteed. 

King John, as will easily be believed from the revelation of 
his character already made, surpassed the worst of his prede- 
cessors in tyranny and wickedness. His course led to an open 
revolt of the barons of the realm. The tyrant was forced to bow 
to the storm he had raised. He met his barons at Runnymede, a 
flat meadow on the Thames, near Windsor, and there affixed his 
seal to the instrument that had been prepared to receive it. 

Among the important articles of the Great Charter were the 
following, which we give as showing at once the nature of 
the venerable document and the kind of grievances of which 
the people had occasion to complain. 

Art. 12. "No scutage 2 or aid shall be imposed in our kingdom 
except by the common council of our kingdom, except for the ran- 
soming of our body, for the making of our oldest son a knight, and 
for once marrying our oldest daughter, and for these purposes it shall 
be only a reasonable aid ; 3 . . . 

Art. 39. " No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispos- 
sessed, or outlawed, or banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we 
go upon him, nor send upon him, except by the legal judgment of his 
peers or by the law of the land." 

The Great Charter did not create new rights and privileges, 
but in its main points simply reasserted and confirmed old usages 
and laws. It was immediately violated by John and afterwards 
was disregarded by many of his successors ; but the people always 

2 Scutage was a money payment made in commutation of personal military 
service. 

3 This article respecting taxation was suffered to fall into abeyance in the reign of 
John's successor, Henry III, and it was not until about one hundred years after the 
granting of Magna Carta that the great principle that the people should be taxed 
only through their representatives in Parliament became fully established. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 447 

clung to it as the warrant and safeguard of their liberties, and 
again and again forced tyrannical kings to renew and confirm its 
provisions, and swear solemnly to observe all its articles. 

Considering the far-reaching consequences that resulted from 
the granting of Magna Carta, — the securing of constitutional 
liberty as an inheritance for the English-speaking race in all parts 
of the world, — it must always be considered the most important 
concession ever wrung from a tyrannical sovereign. 

621. Beginnings of the House of Commons (1265). — The reign 
of Henry III (1216-1272), John's son and successor, witnessed 
the second important step taken in English constitutional free- 
dom. This was the formation of the House of Commons, the 
Great Council having up to this time been made up of nobles 
and bishops. It was again the royal misbehavior — so frequently 
is it, as Lieber says, that Liberty is indebted to bad kings, though 
to them she owes no thanks — that led to this great change in 
the form of the English national assembly. 

Henry had violated his oath to observe the provisions of the 
Great Charter and had become even more tyrannical than his 
father. In the words of a contemporary, the English were op- 
pressed " like as the people of Israel under Pharaoh." The final 
outcome was an uprising of the barons and the people similar 
to that in the reign of King John. It was open war between 
the king and his people. In a great engagement known as the 
battle of Lewes, the royal forces were defeated and Henry was 
taken prisoner (1264). 

In order to rally all classes to the support of the cause he 
represented, Earl Simon de Montfort, the leader of the revolt, 
now issued, in the king's name, writs of summons to the barons 
(save the king's adherents), the bishops, and the abbots to meet 
in Parliament; and at the same time sent similar writs to the 
sheriffs of the different shires, directing them " to return two 
knights for the body of their county, with two citizens or burghers 
for every city and borough contained in it." This was the first 
time that plain untitled citizens, or burghers, had been called to 
take their place with the barons, bishops, and knights, in the 



448 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

great council of the nation, to join in deliberations on the affairs 
of the realm. 4 

From this gathering, then, may be dated the birth of the 
House of Commons (1265). Formed as it was of knights and 
burghers, representatives of the common people, it was at first a 
weak and timorous body, quite overawed by the great lords, but 
was destined finally to grow into the controlling branch of the 
British Parliament. 

622. Conquest of "Wales (1272-1282). — For more than seven 
hundred years after the withdrawal of the Romans from Britain 
the Celtic tribes of Wales maintained among their mountain fast- 
nesses an ever-renewed struggle with the successive invaders of 
the island, — with Saxon, Dane, and Norman. They were forced 
to acknowledge the overlordship of some of the Saxon and Nor- 
man kings ; but they were restless vassals, and were constantly 
withholding tribute and refusing homage. 

When Edward I (12 7 2-1 307) came to the English throne, 
Llewellyn III, who held the overlordship of the Welsh ' chiefs, 
refused to render homage to the new king. Edward led a strong 
army into the fastnesses of the country and quickly reduced his 
rebel vassal to submission. A few years later and the Welsh 
patriots were again in arms ; but the uprising was soon crushed 
and Llewellyn was slain (1282). His head, after the barbarous 
manner of the times, was exposed over the gateway of the Tower 
of London. The last remnant of Welsh independence was now 
extinguished. Edward made his little son, born during the 
campaign, feudal lord of the Welsh, with the title of Prince of 
Wales ; and from that time the title has usually been borne by 
the eldest son of the English sovereign. 

For two centuries after the death of Llewellyn the Welsh were 
the unwilling and at times rebellious subjects of England. Then 
occurred a happy circumstance, — the accession to the English 

4 At first the burghers could take part only in questions relating to taxation, but 
gradually they acquired the right to share in all matters that might come before 
Parliament. Just thirty years later (in 1295), in the reign of Edward I, there was 
gathered through regular constitutional summons what came to be called the Model 
Parliament, since in its composition it served as a pattern for later Parliaments. 



WARS WITH SCOTLAND 



449 



throne of a prince of Welsh descent ; for Henry Tudor, the first 
of the Tudor dynasty, was the grandson of a Welsh knight named 
Owen Tudor. With princes of the ancient British race reigning in 
London, the Welsh, from sullen subjects, were suddenly transformed 
into enthusiastic and loyal supporters of the English throne. 

623. Wars with Scotland (1 296-1 328). — In 1285 the ancient 
Celtic line of Scottish chiefs became extinct. A great number of 
claimants for the vacant throne im- 
mediately arose. Chief among 
these were Robert Bruce and John 
Balliol, distinguished noblemen of 
Norman descent, attached to the 
Scottish court. Edward, who 
claimed suzerain rights over Scot- 
land, was asked to act as arbitrator 
and decide to whom the crown 
should be given. He consented to 
do so, but only on condition that 
the Scottish nobles should do hom- 
age to him as their overlord. This 
they were constrained to do. 
Edward's commissioners then de- 
cided the question of the succession 
in favor of Balliol, who now took 
the crown of Scotland as the fully 
acknowledged vassal of the English 
sovereign (1292). 

Balliol soon broke the feudal 
ties which bound him to Edward 
and sought an alliance with the French king. In the war that 
followed the Scots were defeated and Scotland fell back as a for- 
feited fief into the hands of Edward (1296). As a sign that the 
Scottish kingdom had come to an end, Edward carried off to 
London the royal regalia, and with this a large stone, known as 
the Stone of Scone, upon which the Scottish kings from time out 
of memory had been accustomed to be crowned. The block was 




Fig. 119. — Coronation Chair 
in Westminster Abbey 

Beneath the seat is the celebrated 
Scottish Stone of Scone, which 
was carried away from Scotland 
by Edward I 



450 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

taken to Westminster Abbey and there put beneath the seat of a 
stately throne chair, which to this day is used in the coronation 
ceremonies of the English sovereigns. 

The two countries were not long united. The Scotch people 
loved too well their ancient liberties to submit quietly to this 
extinguishment of their national independence. Under the in- 
spiration and lead of the famous Sir William Wallace, an outlaw 
knight, all the Lowlands were soon in determined revolt. Wallace 
gained some successes, 5 but at length was betrayed into Edward's 
hands. He was condemned to death as a traitor, and his head, 
garlanded with a crown of laurel, was fixed on 'London Bridge 
(1305). The romantic life of Wallace, his patriotic services, his 
heroic exploits, and his tragic death at once lifted him to the 
place that he has ever since held as the national hero of Scotland. 

The struggle in which Wallace had fallen was soon renewed by 
the almost equally renowned hero Robert Bruce (grandson of the 
Robert Bruce mentioned above), who was the representative of 
the nobles, as Wallace had been of the common people. With 
Edward II Bruce fought the great battle of Bannockburn, near 
Stirling. Edward's army was almost annihilated (1314). It was 
the most appalling disaster that had befallen the arms of the Eng- 
lish people since the memorable defeat of Harold at Hastings. 

The independence of Scotland really dates from the great 
victory of Bannockburn, but the English were too proud to ac- 
knowledge it until after fourteen years more of war. Finally, 
in the year 1328, the young king, Edward III, gave up all claim 
to the Scottish crown, and Scotland, with the hero Bruce as its 
king, took its place as an independent power among the nations. 

The independence gained by the Scotch at Bannockburn was 
maintained for nearly three centuries, — until 1603, — when the 
crowns of England and Scotland were peacefully united in the 
person of James VI of Scotland, who became James I of Eng- 
land, the founder of the Stuart dynasty of English kings. During 
the greater part of these three hundred years the two countries 
were very quarrelsome neighbors. 

6 Notably a great victory, which is known as the battle of Stirling (1297). 



THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 45 I 

The Hundred Years' War {1338-1433) 

624. Causes of the War. — The long and wasteful war between 
England and France known as the Hundred Years' War was a 
most eventful one, and its effect upon both England and France 
was so important and lasting as to entitle it to a prominent place 
in the records of the closing events of the Middle Ages. 

The war with Scotland was one of the things that led up to 
this war. All through that struggle France, as the old and jealous 
rival of England, was ever giving aid and encouragement to the 
Scots. Then the English possessions in France, for which the 
English king owed homage to the French sovereign as overlord, 
were a source of constant dispute between the two countries. 
Trade jealousies also contributed to the causes of mutual hostility. 
Furthermore, upon the death of Charles IV of France, the last 
of the direct Capetian line, Edward III laid claim to the French 
crown in much the same way that William of Normandy centuries 
before had laid claim to the crown of England. 

625. The Battle of Crecy (1346). — The first great combat of 
the long war was the famous battle of Crecy, in which the Eng- 
lish bowmen inflicted upon the' French a most terrible defeat. 
Twelve hundred knights, the flower of French chivalry, and thou- 
sands of foot soldiers lay dead upon the field. 

The battle of Cre'cy is memorable for several reasons, but 
chiefly because feudalism and chivalry there received their death- 
blow. " The whole social and political fabric of the Middle 
Ages," writes Green, " rested on a military base, and its base was 
suddenly withdrawn. The churl had struck down the noble ; the 
bowman proved more than a match, in sheer hard fighting, for 
the knight. From the day of Crecy feudalism tottered slowly but 
surely to its grave." The battles of the world were thereafter to 
be fought and won, not by mail-clad knights with battle-ax and 
lance, but by common foot soldiers with bow and gun. 6 

6 The next two important events of this war were the capture of Calais by the 
English (1347) and the battle of Poitiers (1356), which was for the French a second 
Crecy. The battle was followed (in 1360) by the Treaty of Bretigny. 



452 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

626. The Black Death (1347-1349). — At just this time there 
fell upon Europe the awful pestilence known as the Black Death. 
The plague was introduced from the East by way of the trade 
routes of the Mediterranean, and from the southern countries 
spread in the course of a few years over the entire continent, its 
virulence without doubt being greatly increased by the unsanitary 
condition of the crowded towns and the wretched mode of living 
of the poorer classes. In many regions almost all the people fell 
victims to the scourge. Many monasteries were almost emptied. 
In the Mediterranean and the Baltic ships were seen drifting 
about without a soul on board. Crops rotted unharvested in the 
fields ; herds and flocks wandered about unattended. It is esti- 
mated that from one third to one half of the population of Europe 
perished. Hecker, an historian of the pestilence, estimates the 
total number of victims at twenty-five millions. It was the most 
awful calamity that ever befell the human race. 

6270 Battle of Agincourt (1415). — During the reign in Eng- 
land of Henry V, France was unfortunate in having an insane 
king, Charles VI ■ and Henry, taking advantage of the disorder 
into which the French kingdom naturally fell under these cir- 
cumstances, invaded the country with a powerful army, made up 
largely of archers. On the field of Agincourt the French suffered 
a most humiliating defeat, their terrible losses falling, as at Cre'cy, 
chiefly upon the knighthood. Five years later was concluded a 
treaty, 7 according to the terms of which the French crown, upon 
the death of Charles, was to go to the English king. 

628. Joan of Arc; the Relief of Orleans (1429). — But patriot- 
ism was not yet wholly extinct among the French people. There 
were many who regarded the concessions of the treaty as not 
only weak and shameful but as unjust to the dauphin Charles, 
who was thereby disinherited, and they accordingly refused to 
be bound by its provisions. Consequently, when the poor insane 
king died the terms of the treaty could not be carried out in 
full, and the war dragged on. The party that stood by their 
native prince, afterwards crowned as Charles VII, were at last 

7 The Treaty of Troyes, 1420. 



JOAN OF ARC 



453 



reduced to most desperate straits. The greater part of the coun- 
try was in the hands of the English, who were holding in close 
siege the important city of Orleans. 

But the darkness was the deep gloom that precedes the dawn. 
A strange deliverer now appears, — the famous Joan of Arc. 
This young peasant girl, with soul sensitive to impressions from 
brooding over her country's wrongs and sufferings, saw visions 
and heard voices which 
bade her undertake the 
work of delivering France. 
She was obedient unto 
the heavenly voices. 

Rejected by some, yet 
received by most of her 
countrymen as a mes- 
senger from Heaven, the 
maiden kindled through- 
out the land a flame of 
enthusiasm that nothing 
could resist. Inspiring 
the dispirited French 
soldiers with new courage, 
she forced the English to 
raise the siege of Orleans 




Fig. i 20. — Joan of Arc. (From a photo- 
graph of a beautiful painting in the His- 
torical Gallery at Versailles) 



('from which exploit she We have no authentic likeness of Joan of Arc. 
. . . The above must be regarded as an idealized 

became known as the portrait 

Maid of Orleans), and 

speedily brought about the coronation of Prince Charles at Rheims 

(1429). Shortly afterward she fell into the hands of the English, 

was tried by ecclesiastical judges for witchcraft and heresy, and 

was condemned to be burned as a heretic and a witch. Her 

martyrdom took place at Rouen in the year 143 1. 

But the spirit of the maid had already taken possession of the 
French nation. From this on, the war, though long-continued, 
went steadily against the English. Little by little they were 
pushed off from the soil they had conquered, and driven out of 



454 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

their own Gascon lands of the south as well, until finally they 
held nothing in the land save Calais. Thus ended, in 1453, the 
year of the fall of Constantinople, the Hundred Years' War. 

629. Effects upon England of the War. — The most important 
effects of the war as concerns England were the enhancement of 
the power of the Lower House of Parliament and the awakening 
of a national spirit. The maintaining of the long and costly 
quarrel called for such heavy expenditures of men and money 
that the English kings were made more dependent than hitherto 
upon the representatives of the people, who were careful to make 
their grants of supplies conditional upon the correction of abuses 
or the confirming of their privileges. Thus the war served to 
make the Commons a power in the English government. 

Again, as the war was participated in by all classes alike, the 
great victory of Crecy and the others which followed, aroused a 
national pride, which led to a closer union between the dif- 
ferent elements of society. Normans and English, enlisted in a 
common enterprise, were fused by the ardor of a common patri- 
otic enthusiasm into a single people. The real national life of 
England dates from this time. 

The Wars of the Roses (145 5- 148 5) 

630. The Two Roses; the Battle of Bosworth Field The 

Wars of the Roses is the name given to a long contest between 
the adherents of the houses of York and Lancaster, rival branches 
of the royal family of England. The strife was so named because 
the Yorkists adopted as their badge a white rose and the Lancas- 
trians a red one. The battle of Bosworth Field (1485) marks the 
close of the war. In this fight King Richard III, the last of the 
House of York, was overthrown and slain by Henry Tudor, Earl 
of Richmond, who was crowned on the field with the diadem 
which had fallen from the head of Richard, and saluted as King 
Henry VII. With him began the dynasty of the Tudors. 

631 . The Effects of the Wars. — The first important result of 
the Wars of the Roses was the ruin of the baronage of England. 



GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 455 

One half of the nobility were slain. Those that survived were 
ruined, their estates having been wasted or confiscated during the 
progress of the struggle. Not a single great house retained its 
old-time wealth and influence. The war marks the final downfall 
of feudalism in England. 

The second result of the struggle sprang from the first. This 
was the great peril into which English liberty was cast by the 
ruin of the nobility. It was primarily the barons who had forced 
the Great Charter from King John, and who had kept him and 
his successors from reigning like absolute monarchs. Upon the 
ruins of their order was now erected something like a royal des- 
potism. Not until the revolution of the seventeenth century did 
the people, by overturning the throne of the Stuarts, curb the 
undue power of the crown and recover their lost liberties. 

Growth of the English Language and Literature 

632. The Language. — From the Norman Conquest to the 
middle of the fourteenth century there were in use in England 
three languages : Norman French was the speech of the con- 
querors and the medium of polite literature ; Saxon, or Old 
English, was the tongue of the conquered people ; while Latin 
was the language of the laws and records, of the Church services, 
and of the works of the learned. 

Modern English is the old Saxon tongue worn and improved 
by use, and enriched by a large infusion of Norman-French 
words, with less important additions from the Latin and other 
languages. It took the place of the Norman French in the courts 
of law about the middle of the fourteenth century. At this time 
the language was broken up into many dialects, and the expres- 
sion " King's English " is supposed to have referred to the 
standard form employed in state documents and in use at court. 

633. Effect of the Norman Conquest on English Literature. — 
The blow that struck down King Harold and his brave thanes on 
the field of Hastings silenced for the space of above a century the 
voice of English literature. The tongue of the conquerors became 



456 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

the speech of the court, the nobility, and the clergy; while the 
language of the despised English was, like themselves, crowded 
out of every place of honor. But when, after a few generations, 
the downtrodden race began to reassert itself, English literature 
emerged from its obscurity, and, with an utterance somewhat 
changed, — yet unmistakably it is the same voice, — resumed its 
interrupted lesson and its broken song. 

634. Chaucer (i34o?-i4oo). — Holding a position high above 
all other writers of early English is Geoffrey Chaucer. He is the 
first in time, and, after Shakespeare, perhaps the first in genius, 
among the great poets of the English-speaking race. He is 
reverently called the Father of English Poetry. 

Chaucer's greatest and most important work is his Canterbury 
Tales. The poet represents himself as one of a company of story- 
telling pilgrims who have set out on a journey to the tomb of 
Thomas Becket at Canterbury. The persons, thirty-two in num- 
ber, making up the party, represent almost every calling in the 
middle class of English society. The prologue, containing char- 
acterizations of the different members of the company, is the 
most valuable part of the production. Here as in a gallery we 
find faithful portraits of our ancestors of the fourteenth century. 

635. William Langland The genial Chaucer shows us the 

pleasant, attractive side of English society and life ; William 




Fig. 121. — Plowing Scene. (From a manuscript of the 
fourteenth century) 

Langland, another writer of the same period, in a poem called 
the Vision of Piers the Plowman (1362), lights up for us the 
world of the poor and the oppressed. This poem quivers with 
sympathy for the hungry, labor-worn peasant, doomed to a life of 



JOHN WYCLIFFE 457 

weary routine and helplessness, despised by haughty lords and 
robbed by shameless ecclesiastics. The long wars with France had 
demoralized the nation ; the Black Death had just reaped its 
awful harvest among the ill-clad, ill-fed, and ill-housed poor. 
Occasional outbursts of wrath against the favored classes are 
the mutterings of the storm soon to burst upon the social world 
in the fury of the Peasants' Revolt, 8 and later upon the religious 
world in the upheavals of the Reformation. 

636. John Wycliffe (1 324-1384) and the Lollards. — Foremost 
among the reformers and religious writers of the period under 
review was John Wycliffe, called " the Morning Star of the Ref- 
ormation." This bold reformer attacked first many of the prac- 
tices and then certain of the doctrines of the Church. He gave 
the English people the first translation of the entire Bible in the 
English language. By means of manuscript copies it was widely 
circulated and read. Its influence was very great, and from its 
appearance may be dated the beginnings of the Reformation 
in England. 

The followers of Wycliffe became known as Lollards (babblers), 
a term applied to them in derision. They were regarded as 
heretics, and heretics at that time were hated and feared, at least 
by those in authority. Parliament passed a law (1401) known as 
the Statute for the Burning of Heretics, which made it the duty 
of the proper civil officers, in cases of persons convicted of heresy 
by the ecclesiastical courts, to receive the same and " before the 
people, in a high place, cause them to be burnt, that such pun- 
ishment may strike fear to the hearts of others." 

Heretics had been burned in England before the passage of 
this law, but now for the first time did Parliament by special 
enactment make this form of punishment the penalty for reli- 
gious dissent. It was the opening of a sad chapter in English 
history. Under the statute many persons whose only fault was 
the teaching or the holding of religious opinions different from 
those of the Church perished at the stake. 

8 In 1381 the English peasants rose in revolt, demanding the abolition of serf- 
dom. The uprising was pitilessly suppressed. 



458 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

II. France 

637. Beginnings of the French Kingdom. — The separate his- 
tory of France may be regarded as beginning with the partition 
of Verdun in 843. At that time the Carolingians, of whom we 
have already learned (Chapter XLII), exercised the royal power. 
Towards the close of the tenth century, in 987, the first of the 
Capetian dynasty came to the throne. 

We shall now direct attention to the important transactions of 
the period covered by the mediaeval Capetian kings. Our special 
aim will be to give prominence to those matters which concern 
the gradual consolidation of the French monarchy and the devel- 
opment among the French people of the sentiment of nationality. 

France under the Direct Line of the Capetiaris (987-1328} 

638. General Statement. — The Capetian dynasty takes its 
name from Hugh Capet, Duke of Francia, the first of the house. 
The direct line embraced fourteen kings, whose united reigns 
spanned a space of three hundred and forty-one years. 

The first Capetian king differed from his vassal counts and 
dukes simply in having a more dignified title, his power being 
scarcely greater than that of many of the lords who paid him 
homage as their suzerain ; but before the close of the Middle 
Ages France had come to be one of the most compact and 
powerful kingdoms in Europe. How various circumstances con- 
spired to build up the power of the kings at the expense of that 
of the great feudal lords and of the Church will appear as we 
go on. 

In this place, however, it should be noted that nothing con- 
tributed more to the strength and influence of the monarchy 
during the period of which we are speaking than the fortunate 
circumstance that for eleven generations, spanning more than 
three centuries, no French king lacked a son to whom to trans- 
mit his authority. With no disputed successions the monarchy 
grew steadily in power and prestige. 



THE FRENCH AND THE CRUSADES 459 

639. The French and the Crusades. — The age of the Capetians 
was the age of the Crusades. These romantic expeditions, while 
stirring all Christendom, appealed especially to the ardent tem- 
perament of the Gallic race. It was the great predominance of 
French-speaking persons among the first crusaders which led the 
Eastern people to call them all Franks, the term still used 
throughout the East to designate Europeans, irrespective of their 
nationality. 

But it is only the influence of the Crusades on the French 
monarchy that we need to notice in this place. They tended 
very materially to weaken the power and influence of the feudal 
nobility, and in a corresponding degree to strengthen the author- 
ity of the crown and add to its dignity. The way in which they 
brought about this transfer of power from the aristocracy to the 
king has been already explained in the chapter on the Crusades 
(sec. 584). 

In that same chapter we also saw how the crusade against the 
Albigenses resulted in the almost total extirpation of that hereti- 
cal sect and in the final acquisition by the French crown of large 
and rich territories formerly held by the counts of Toulouse, the 
patrons of the heretics. 

640. Admission of the Third Estate to the National Assembly 
(1302). — The event of the greatest political significance in the 
Capetian age was the admission, in the reign of Philip the Fair, 
of the representatives of the towns to the National Assembly. 
This transaction is in French history what the creation of the 
House of Commons is in English history (sec. 621). 

A dispute having arisen between Philip and the Pope respect- 
ing the control of the offices and revenues of the Church in France 
(sec. 590), Philip, in order to rally to his support all classes 
throughout his kingdom, called a meeting of the National Assem- 
bly, to which he invited representatives of the burghers, or inhabit- 
ants of the towns (1302). This council had hitherto been made 
up of two estates only, — the nobles and the clergy ; now is added 
what comes to be known as the Tiers Etat, or Third Estate, while 
the assembly henceforth is called the Estates- or States-General. 



460 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

Before the growing power of this Third Estate — a power devel- 
oped, however, outside and not within the National Assembly 
itself — we shall see the Church, the nobility, and the monarchy 
all go down, just as in England we shall see clergy, nobles, and 
king yield to the rising power of the English Commons. 



France under the Mediceval Valois 9 (13 28-1498) 

641. Effects upon France of the Hundred Years' War. — The 

main interest of the period of French history upon which we here 
enter attaches to that long struggle between England and France 
known as the Hundred Years' War. Having already in connec- 
tion with English affairs touched upon the causes and incidents 
of this war, we shall here speak only of the effects of the struggle 
on the French people and kingdom. Among these must be noticed 
the almost complete ruin of the French feudal aristocracy, the 
consequent growth of the power of the king, and the awakening 
of the national consciousness. Speaking broadly, we may say 
that by the close of the war feudalism in France was over, and 
that France had become, partly in spite of the war but more 
largely by reason of it, not only a great monarchy but a great 
nation. 

642. Louis XI and Charles the Bold of Burgundy. — The founda- 
tions of the French monarchy were greatly enlarged and strength- 
ened by the unscrupulous measures of Louis XI (1 461— 1483), 
who was a perfect Ulysses in cunning and deceit. His maxim 
was, " He who does not know how to dissimulate does not know 
how to reign." The great feudal lords that still retained power 
and influence he brought to destruction one after another, and 
united their fiefs to the royal domains. 

Of all the vassal nobles ruined by the craft of Louis, the most 
renowned and powerful was Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. 
Charles was endeavoring, out of a great patchwork of petty feudal 
states and semi-independent cantons and cities, to build up a 

9 The House of Valois was a branch of the Capetian family. 



INVASION OF ITALY BY CHARLES VIII 461 

kingdom between Germany and France. 10 Louis was frequently 
warring with the duke and forever intriguing against him. Upon 
the death of the duke — he was killed in 1477 in a battle with 
the Swiss — Louis, without clear right, seized a considerable part 
of his dominions. 

By cession and by inheritance Louis also added to France 
important lands in the south (Provence and other territory), 
which gave the French kingdom a wider frontage upon the Medi- 
terranean, and made the Pyrenees its southern defense. 

643. Invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. — Charles VIII (1483- 
1498), son and successor of Louis XI, was the last of the mediae- 
val Valois. Through his marriage to Anne of Brittany he brought 
that great fief, which had hitherto constituted an almost inde- 
pendent state, under the direct rule of the crown. 

Charles was a romantic youth. It was his dream to make 
France instead of Germany the head of the world empire. With 
a standing army, created during the latter years of the war with 
England, at his command, he invaded Italy, intent on the con- 
quest of Naples, — to which he laid claim on the strength of 
an old bequest, — proposing, with that state subdued, to lead a 
crusade to the East against the Turks. 

Charles' march through Italy was a mere "promenade." In 
the early spring of the year 1495 he entered Naples in triumph. 
Meanwhile the king of Aragon, the Venetians, and other powers 
were uniting their armies to punish the insolence and check the 
vaulting ambition of the would-be emperor and crusader. Only 
at the cost of a large part of his army did Charles succeed in 
making good his retreat into France. 

This enterprise of Charles is noteworthy not only because it 
marks the commencement of a long series of campaigns carried 
on by the French in Italy, but further on account of Charles' 
army having been made up largely of paid troops instead of 



10 His success would have meant practically a restoration of the old Lotharingian 
kingdom (see map, p. 376). It seems one of the misfortunes of history that Charles 
did not succeed in his ambition. Such a kingdom as he planned might have proved 
a serviceable " buffer state " between France and Germany. 



462 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

feudal retainers, which fact assures us that the feudal system, as 
a military organization, had practically come to an end. 

The Beginnings of French Literature 

644. The Troubadours. — The contact of the old Latin speech 
in Gaul with that of the Teutonic invaders gave rise there to two 
very distinct dialects. These were the Langue a" Oc, or Proven- 
gal, the tongue of the South of France and of the adjoining 
regions of Spain and Italy ; and the Langue a" 1 Oil, or French 
proper, the language of the North. 11 

About the beginning of the twelfth century, by which time the 
Provencal tongue had become settled and somewhat polished, 
literature in France first began to find a voice in the songs of 
the Troubadours, the poets of the South. It is instructive to 
note that it was the home of the Albigensian heresy, the land 
that had felt the influence of every Mediterranean civiliza- 
tion, that was also the home of the Troubadour literature. The 
counts of Toulouse, the protectors of the heretics, were also the 
patrons of the poets. It was the same fierce persecution which 
uprooted the heretical faith that stilled the song of the Trou- 
badours. 

The verses of the Troubadours were sung in every land, and 
to their stimulating influence the early poetry of almost every 
people of Europe is largely indebted. 

645. The Trouveurs. — These were the poets of Northern 
France, who composed in the Langue cf Oil, or Old French 
tongue. They flourished during the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 
turies. As the poetical literature of the South found worthy 
patrons in the counts of Toulouse, so did that of the North find 
admiring encouragers in the dukes of Normandy. The compo- 
sitions of the Trouveurs were chiefly epic or narrative poems, 
called romances. Many of them gather about three familiar 
names, — Charlemagne, King Arthur, and Alexander the Great, 

11 The terms Langue d'Oc and Langue d'O'il arose from the use of different 
words for " yes," which in the tongue of the South was oc, and in that of the North oil. 



FROISSART'S CHRONICLES 463 

— thus forming what are designated as the cycle of Charlemagne, 
the Arthurian or Armorican cycle, and the Alexandrian. 12 

The influence of these French romances upon the springing 
literatures of Europe was most inspiring and helpful. Nor has 
their influence yet ceased. Thus in English literature not only 
did Chaucer and Spenser and all the early island poets draw 
inspiration from these fountains of Continental song, but the 
later Tennyson, in his Idylls of the King, has illustrated the power 
over the imagination yet possessed by the Arthurian poems of 
the old Trouveurs. 

646. Froissart's Chronicles. — The first great prose writer in 
French literature was Froissart (b. 1337), whose picturesqueness 
of style and skill as a story-teller have won for him the title of 
the " French Herodotus." Born, as he was, only a little after the 
opening of the Hundred Years' War, and knowing personally 
many of the actors in that long struggle, it was fitting that he 
should have become, as he did, the annalist of those stirring times. 

III. Spain 

647. The Beginnings of Spain. — When, in the eighth century, 
the Saracens swept like a wave over Spain, the mountains of 
Asturias and Cantabria in the northwest corner of the peninsula 
afforded a refuge for the most resolute of the Christian chiefs 
who refused to submit their necks to the Moslem yoke. These 
brave and hardy warriors not only successfully defended the hilly 
districts that formed their asylum, but gradually pushed back the 
invaders and regained control of a portion of the fields and cities 
that had been lost. By the opening of the eleventh century sev- 
eral little Christian states, among which we must notice especially 
the states of Castile and Aragon because of the prominent part 
they were to play in later history, had been established upon the 
ground thus recovered or always maintained. Castile was at first 
simply "a line of castles" against the Moors, whence its name. 

12 These epics represent the three elements in the civilization of Western Europe, 

— the German, the Celtic, and the Graeco-Roman. It was the Crusades that brought 
in a fresh relay of tales and legends from the lands of the East. 



464 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

648. Union of Castile and Aragon (1479). — For several cen- 
turies the princes of the little states to which we have referred 
kept up an incessant warfare with their Mohammedan neighbors ; 
but, owing to dissensions among themselves, they were unable to 
combine in any effective way for the complete reconquest of their 
ancient possessions. But the marriage, in 1469, of Ferdinand, 
prince of Aragon, to Isabella, princess of Castile, paved the way 
for the virtual union in 1479 of these two leading states into a 
single kingdom. By this happy union the quarrels of these two 
rival principalities were composed, and they were now free to 
employ their united strength in effecting what the Christian 
princes amidst all their contentions had never lost sight of, — 
the expulsion of the Moors from the peninsula. 

649. The Conquest of Granada (1492). — At the time when the 
basis of the Spanish monarchy was laid by the union of Castile 
and Aragon, the Mohammedan possessions, reduced by the con- 
stant pressure of the Christian chiefs through eight centuries, 
embraced only a limited dominion in the south of Spain. Here 
the Moors had established a strong, well-compacted state, known 
as the Kingdom of Granada. As soon as Ferdinand and Isabella 
had settled the affairs of their dominions, they began to make 
preparation for the reduction of this last stronghold of the Moorish 
power in the peninsula. 

The Moors made a desperate defense of their little state. The 
struggle lasted for ten years. City after city fell into the hands 
of the Christian knights, and finally Granada, pressed by an 
army of seventy thousand, was forced to surrender, and the 
Cross replaced the Crescent on its walls and towers (1492). 
The Moors, or Moriscos, as they were called, were allowed to 
remain in the country, though under many annoying restric- 
tions. What is known as their expulsion occurred at a later 
date (sec. 727). 

The fall of Granada holds an important place among the events 
that mark the last half of the fifteenth century. It marked the 
end, after an existence of almost eight hundred years, of Moham- 
medan rule in the Spanish peninsula, and thus formed an offset 




The Alhambra: Palace of the Moorish Kings at Granada 
(From a photograph) 



THE INQUISITION 465 

to the progress of the Moslem power in Eastern Europe and the 
loss to the Christian world of Constantinople. 

650. The Inquisition. — A dark shadow is cast upon the reign 
of the illustrious sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella by the estab- 
lishment in Spain of the Inquisition, or Holy Office. This was 
a tribunal the purpose of which was the detection and punish- 
ment of heresy. The Jews were in this earlier period the chief 
victims of the court. Accompanying the announcement of the 
sentences of the Holy Office there were solemn public ceremonies 
known as the aitto de fe (act of faith). The assembly was held in 
some church or in the public square, and the following day those 
condemned to death were burned outside the city walls. It is 
particularly to this last act of the drama that the term auto de fe 
has come popularly to be applied. 

The Inquisition secured for Spain unity of religious belief, but 
only through suppressing freedom of thought, and thereby sap- 
ping the strength and virility of the Spanish people. Whatever 
was most promising and vigorous was withered and blasted, or 
was cast out. In the year 1492 the Jews were expelled from 
the country. It is estimated that between two and three hun- 
dred thousand of this race were forced to seek an asylum in 
other lands. 

651. Death of Ferdinand and Isabella. — Queen Isabella died 
in 1504, and Ferdinand followed her in the year 15 16, upon 
which latter event the crown of Spain descended to their grand- 
son, Charles, of whom we shall hear much hereafter as Emperor 
Charles V. With his reign the modern history of Spain begins. 

Beginnings of the Spanish Language and Literature 

652. The Language. — After the union of Castile and Aragon 
it was the language of the former that became the speech of the 
Spanish court. Gradually this speech gained ascendancy over the 
numerous dialects of the country and became at last the national 
speech just as in France the Langue d' Oil finally crowded out 
all other dialects. By the conquests and colonizations of the 



466 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

sixteenth century this Castilian speech was destined to become 
only less widely spread than is the English tongue. 

653. The Poem of the Cid. — Castilian or Spanish literature 
begins in the twelfth century with the romance poem of the Cid 
(that is, Chief, the title of the hero of the poem), one of the best 
known literary productions of the mediaeval period. This grand 
national poem was the outgrowth of the sentiments inspired by the 
long struggle between the Spanish Christians and the Mohammedan 
Moors. Its influence in exciting the sentiment of Spanish patri- 
otism and in stimulating the spirit of Spanish nationality has been 
likened to the effects of the poems of Homer in creating fraternal 
bonds between the cities of ancient Hellas. 

IV. Germany 

654. Beginnings of the Kingdom of Germany. — The history of 
Germany as a separate kingdom begins with the break-up of the 
empire of Charlemagne, about the middle of the ninth century 
(sec. 535). The part to the east of the Rhine, with which fragment 
alone we are now specially concerned, was called the Kingdom of 
the Eastern Franks, in distinction from that to the west of the 
river, which was known as the Kingdom of the Western Franks. 
This Eastern Frankish kingdom was made up of several groups of 
tribes, of which the East Franks were at this time chief. Closely 
allied in race, speech, manners, and social arrangements, all these 
peoples seemed ready to be welded into a close and firm nation. 
That such was not the outcome of the historical development dur- 
ing mediaeval times was due largely to the adoption by the German 
emperors of an unfortunate policy respecting a world empire. This 
matter will be explained in the following paragraph. 

655. Consequences to Germany of the Revival of the Empire by 
Otto the Great. — We have in another place told how Otto I of 
Germany, in imitation of Charlemagne, restored the Empire (sec. 
535). The pursuit of this phantom by the German kings resulted 
in the most woeful consequences to Germany. Trying to grasp 
too much, the German rulers seized nothing at all. Attempting to 



THE SEVEN ELECTORS 467 

be emperors of the world, they failed to become even kings of 
Germany. While they were engaged in outside enterprises their 
home affairs were neglected and the vassal princes of Germany 
succeeded in increasing their power and making themselves practi- 
cally independent. Thus the unification of Germany was delayed 
for several hundred years. 

Had the emperors inflicted loss and disaster upon Germany 
alone through this misdirection of their energies, the case would 
not be so lamentable ; but the fair fields of Italy were for centuries 
made the camping fields of the imperial armies, and the whole 
peninsula was kept embroiled with the quarrels of Guelphs and 
Ghibellines, 13 and thus the nationalization of the Italian people 
was also delayed for centuries. 

Germany received just one positive compensation for all this 
loss accruing from the ambition of her kings. This was the gift of 
Italian civilization, which came into Germany through the con- 
nections of the emperors with the peninsula. 

656. The Seven Electors ; the Interregnum (125 4-1 2 7 3). — In 
order to make intelligible the transactions of that period in Ger- 
man history known as the Interregnum, we must first say a word 
about the Electors of the Empire. 

When at the beginning of the tenth century the German Caro- 
lingian line became extinct, the great nobles of the kingdom 
assumed the right of choosing the successor of the last of the 
house, and Germany thus became an elective feudal monarchy. 
In the course of time a few of the leading nobles usurped the right 
of choosing the king, and these princes became known as Electors. 
There were at the end of the Hohenstaufen period seven princes 
who enjoyed this important privilege, four of whom were secular 
princes and three spiritual. 

We shall now understand the shameful transaction of the sale 
of the German crown. The Electors, like the prsetorians of ancient 
Rome (sec. 415), put up the bauble for sale. There were two 
bidders, both foreigners, Richard of Cornwall, brother of the 
English king, Henry III, and Alphonso, king of Castile. Both 

13 The Guelphs were adherents of the Pope, and the Ghibellines of the Emperor. 



468 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

candidates offered the Electors large bribes, and so both were 
elected, — one of the Electors voting for both candidates. 

Of course neither of the emperors-elect possessed any real 
authority in Germany in any of the lands claimed as parts of the 
Empire. Anarchy prevailed throughout the country. Princes 
made themselves petty despots in their dominions, while the lesser 
nobles became robbers and preyed upon traders. 

657. Towns and Free Imperial Cities. — The kingly power hav- 
ing fallen into such utter contempt, the towns found it necessary, 
in order to protect themselves against the violence and oppression 
of the princes and barons, to form confederations and take their 
defense in their own hands. It was during this anarchical period 
that the Hanseatic League grew rapidly in strength and influence 
(sec. 603). 

During the course of the thirteenth century many of the towns 
got rid of the presence of the imperial officers and became what 
are known as free imperial cities. They of course still acknowl- 
edged the suzerainty of the Emperor, but were allowed to manage 
their own affairs to suit themselves, and thus became practically 
little commonwealths, somewhat like the city-republics of Italy. 

658. Rise of the. Swiss Republic. — The most noteworthy mat- 
ters in German history during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 
are the struggle between the Swiss and the princes of the Hapsburg 
or Austrian family, the religious movement of the Hussites, and 
the growing power of the House of Hapsburg. 

Embraced within the limits of the mediaeval Empire was the 
country now known as Switzerland. Its liberty-loving people 
yielded to the Emperor a nominal obedience, like that of the 
free imperial cities ; but they were very impatient of the claims 
of various feudal lords to political rights and authority over them. 

Among the lords claiming or actually possessing rights over 
different cantons or communities were the counts of Hapsburg. 14 



1* So called from the castle of Hapsburg, in Switzerland, the cradle of the house. 
In 1273 Count Rudolph of Hapsburg was chosen Emperor. A little later he acquired 
Austria as an appanage for his house. From this new possession the family took a 
new title, — that of the House of Austria. 



THE HUSSITES 469 

The efforts of the Hapsburgs to bring the mountaineers wholly 
under their direct power led the three so-called Forest Cantons, 
Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, to form a defensive union, known 
as the Everlasting Compact (1291). This league laid the basis of 
the Swiss Confederation, one of the most typical and interesting 
of the federal states of to-day. 

The struggle between the brave hillsmen and the House of Haps- 
burg was long and memorable. 15 Embellished by Swiss patriotism 
with thrilling tales of heroic daring and self-devotion, the history 
of this contest reads like an Iliad. But modern historical criti- 
cism has reduced much of the story to prose. Thus the tale of 
the hero-patriot William Tell and the tyrant Gessler we now 
know to be a myth, with nothing but the revolt as the nucleus 
of fact. 

659. The Hussites. — About the beginning of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, through the medium of the university connections between 
England and Germany, the doctrines of the English reformer 
Wycliffe began to spread in Bohemia. The chief of the new sect 
was John Huss, a professor of the University of Prague. His 
teachings were condemned by the great Council of Constance, 
and Huss himself, having been delivered over into the hands 
of the civil authorities for punishment, was burned at the stake 
(141 5). The following year Jerome of Prague, another reformer, 
was likewise burned. Shortly after the burning of Huss a crusade 
was proclaimed against his followers, who had risen in arms. 
Then began a cruel, desolating war of fifteen years, the outcome 
of which was the almost total extermination of the radical party 
among the Hussites. 

660. The Imperial Crown becomes Hereditary in the House of 
Austria (1438). — In the year 1438 Albert, Duke of Austria, was 
raised by the Electors to the imperial throne. His accession marks 

15 Noteworthy battles, all victories for the Swiss, were the battle of Morgarten 
(1315), the battle of Sempach (1386), and the battle of Nafels (1388). It was at 
Sempach, as a patriotic myth relates, that Arnold of Winkelried broke the ranks of 
the Austrians by collecting in his arms as many of their lances as he could, and, as 
they pierced his breast, bearing them with him to the ground, exclaiming, " Comrades, 
I will open a road for you." 



470 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

an epoch in German history, for from this time on until the dis- 
solution of the Empire by Napoleon in 1806, the imperial crown 
was practically hereditary in the Hapsburg family, the Electors, 
although never failing to go through the formality of an election, 
always, with one exception, choosing a person of Hapsburg descent. 
The greatest of the Hapsburg line during the mediaeval period 
was Maximilian I (1493-15 19). The most noteworthy matter of 
his reign was the efforts made for constitutional reforms which 
should enable Germany to secure that internal peace and national 
unity which France, England, and Spain had each already in a 
fair degree attained. But every effort of this kind failed, because 
the Electors and princes would not give up any part of their 
privileges and power. 

Beginnings of German Literature 

661. The Nibelnngenlied. — It was during the rule of the Hohen- 
staufen (1 178-1254) that Germany produced the first pieces of 
a national literature. The Nibelungenlied, or the " Lay of the 
Nibelungs," is the great German mediaeval epic. It was reduced 
to writing about 1200, being a recast of German legends and 
lays dating from the sixth and seventh centuries. The hero of 
the story is Siegfried, the Achilles of Teutonic legend and song. 

662 . The Minnesingers. — Under the same emperors, during 
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Minnesingers, the poets 
of love as the word signifies, flourished. They were the " Trouba- 
dours of Germany." 

Closely connected with the lyric poetry of the Minnesingers 
is a species of chivalric romances known as court epics. The 
finest of these pieces have for their groundwork the mythic 
Celtic-French legends of the Holy Grail and of the Knights of 
King Arthur's Round Table. The best representative of these 
romances is the poem of Parsifal} 6 The moral and spiritual 
teaching of the poem is that only through humility, purity, and 
human sympathy can the soul attain perfection. 

16 By Wolfram of Eschenbach (d. about 1220). 



THE BEGINNINGS OF RUSSIA 471 

V. Russia 

663. The Beginnings of Russia; the Mongol Invasion. — The 

state established by the Swedish adventurer Rurik (sec. 538) 
came to be known as Russia, from Ros, the name of the Scandi- 
navian settlers. The descendants of Rurik gradually extended 
their authority over neighboring tribes, until nearly all the north- 
western Slavs were included in their growing dominions. 

In the thirteenth century an overwhelming calamity befell 
Russia. This was the overrunning and conquest of the country 
by the Mongol hordes (sec. 596). The barbarian conquerors 
inflicted the most horrible atrocities upon the unfortunate land, 
and for two hundred and fifty years held the Russian princes in 
a degrading bondage, forcing them to pay homage and tribute. 
This misfortune delayed for centuries the nationalization of the 
Slavic peoples. It was just such a misfortune as a little later befell 
the Greeks and other races of Southeastern Europe (sec. 599). 

664. Russia freed from the Mongols. — It was not until the 
reign of Ivan the Great (1462-1505) that Russia, — now fre- 
quently called Muscovy from the fact that it had been reorgan- 
ized with Moscow as a center, — after a terrible struggle, suc- 
ceeded in freeing itself from the hateful Tartar domination and 
began to assume the character of a well-consolidated monarchy. 
By the end of the Middle Ages Russia had become a great power ; 
but she was as yet too closely hemmed in by hostile states to be 
able to make her influence felt in the affairs of Europe. 

VI. Italy 

665. No National Government. — In marked contrast to all 
those countries of which we have thus far spoken, unless we 
except Germany, Italy came to the close of the Middle Ages 
without a national or regular government. This is to be attrib- 
uted, as we have already learned, to a variety of causes, but in 
large part to that unfortunate rivalry between Pope and Emperor 
which resulted in dividing Italy into two hostile camps. 



472 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

And yet the mediaeval period did not pass without attempts on 
the part of patriot spirits to effect some sort of political union 
among the different cities and states of the peninsula. The most 
noteworthy of these movements, and one which gave assurance 
that the spark of patriotism which was in time to flame into an 
inextinguishable passion for national unity was kindling in the 
Italian heart, was that headed by the patriot-hero Rienzi in the 
fourteenth century. 

666. Rienzi, Tribune of Rome (1347). — During the greater 
part of the fourteenth century the seat of the papal see was at 
Avignon, beyond the Alps (sec. 591). Throughout this period 
of the " Babylonian Captivity," Rome, deprived of her natural 
guardians, was in a state of the greatest confusion. The nobles 
terrorized the country about the capital and kept the streets of 
the city itself in constant turmoil with their bitter feuds. 

In the midst of these disorders there appeared from among 
the lowest ranks of the people a deliverer in the person of one 
Nicola di Rienzi. Possessed of considerable talent and great elo- 
quence, Rienzi easily incited the people to a revolt against the rule, 
or rather misrule, of the nobles, and succeeded in having himself, 
with the title of Tribune, placed at the head of a new govern- 
ment for Rome. He forced the nobles into submission, and in a 
short time effected a most wonderful transformation in the city and 
surrounding country. Order and security took the place of dis- 
order and violence. The best days of republican Rome seemed 
to have been suddenly restored. The enthusiasm of the Roman 
populace knew no limits. The remarkable revolution drew the 
attention of all Italy, and of the world beyond the peninsula as well. 

Encouraged by the success that had thus far attended his 
schemes, Rienzi now began to concert measures for the union of 
all the principalities and cities of Italy into a great republic, with 
Rome as its capital. He sent ambassadors throughout Italy to 
plead at the courts of the princes and in the council chambers of 
the municipalities the cause of Italian unity and freedom. 

The splendid dream of Rienzi was shared by other Italian 
patriots besides himself, among whom was the poet Petrarch, who 



SAVONAROLA 473 

was the friend and encourager of the plebeian tribune, and who 
"wished part in the glorious work and in the lofty fame." 

But the moment for Italy's unification had not yet come. 
Rienzi proved to be an unworthy leader. His sudden elevation 
and surprising success completely turned his head, and he soon 
began to exhibit the most incredible vanity and weakness. The 
people withdrew from him their support ; the Pope excommuni- 
cated him as a rebel and heretic; and the nobles rose against 
him. He was finally killed in a sudden uprising of the populace. 

Thus vanished the dream of Rienzi and of Petrarch, of the 
hero and of the poet. Centuries of division, of shameful subjec- 
tion to foreign princes, — French, Spanish, and Austrian, — of 
wars and suffering, were yet before the Italian people ere Rome 
should become the center of a free, orderly, and united Italy. 

667. Savonarola (145 2-1498). — A word must here be said 
respecting the Florentine monk and reformer, Girolamo Savo- 
narola, who stands as the most noteworthy personage in Italy 
during the closing years of the mediaeval period. 

Savonarola was at once Roman censor and Hebrew prophet. 
His powerful preaching alarmed the conscience of the Florentines. 
At his suggestion the women brought their finery and ornaments, 
and others their beautiful works of art, and, piling them in great 
heaps in the streets of Florence, burned them as vanities. But 
finally the activity of his enemies brought about the reformer's 
downfall, and he was condemned to death, strangled, his body 
burned, and the ashes thrown into the Arno. 

VII. The Northern Countries 

668. The Union of Calmar (1397). — The great Scandinavian 
Exodus of the ninth and tenth centuries drained the Northern 
lands of some of the best elements of their population. For 
this reason these countries did not play as prominent a part in 
mediaeval history as they probably would otherwise have done. 
The constant contentions between the nobility and their sover- 
eigns were also another cause of internal weakness. 



474 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 

In the year 1397, by what is known as the Union of Calmar, the 
three kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden were united 
under Margaret of Denmark. The treaty provided that each 
country should retain its constitution and make its own laws. But 
the treaty was violated, and though the friends of the measure 
had hoped much from it, it brought only feuds and wars. 

Thus the history of these Northern countries during the later 
mediaeval time presents nothing of primary interest which calls 
for narration here ; but early in the Modern Age we shall see 
Sweden developing rapidly as an independent monarchy and for 
a period playing an important part in European affairs. 

Selections from the Sources. — Aucassin and Nicolette (trans, by 
Andrew Lang). This is the most exquisite love story, in prose and verse, 
preserved to us from the age of the Troubadours. Henderson, Select His- 
torical Documents, pp. 1-168. Kendall, Source-Book, chaps, v-vii. 

Secondary Works. — (1) Works of a general character : Freeman, E. A., 
Historical Geography of Europe, 2 vols. (vol. ii consists of maps). GuiZOT, 
F. P. G., History of Civilization in Europe, Lects. ix and xi. Wilson, W., 
The State ; has chapters on the development of the governmental institu- 
tions of the leading states. Lodge, R., The Close of the Middle Ages, 12J3- 
1494. Adams, G. B., Civilization during the Middle Ages, chaps, xiii and xiv. 

(2) National histories : The " Story of the Nations " series contains con- 
venient volumes on each of the chief European states. Green, J. R., His- 
tory of the English People, parts of vols, i and ii. Kitchin, G. W., History 
of France, vol. i. Henderson, E. F., History of Germany in the Middle Ages. 
Hassall, A., The French People. Hume, M. A. S., The Spanish People. 

(3) Biographies and books on special topics : In the " Heroes of the 
Nations " series are to be found separate biographies of many of the great 
characters of the period under review. Lowell, F. C, foan of Arc. 
Trevelyan, G. M., England in the Age of Wycliffe ; furnishes the best 
account we possess of the Peasants' Revolt. Poole, R. C, Wycliffe and 
Movements for Reform. Gasquet, F. A., The Great Pestilence. Cheyney, 
E. P., An Introductioii to the Industrial and Social History of England, 
chap, v, "The Black Death and the Peasants' Rebellion." Smith, J. H., 
The Troubadours at Home, 2 vols. ; the best work in our language on the 
subject with which it deals. Mrs. Oliphant, The Makers of Florence. 
Lea, H. C, A History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, 3 vols. Pres- 
COTT, W. H, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Thomas Becket. 2. William Wallace 
of Scotland. 3. The Black Death. 4. Joan of Arc. 5. Character of 
Louis XI of France. 6. Charles the Bold of Burgundy. 7. Savonarola. 



CHAPTER LIII 
THE RENAISSANCE 

669. The Renaissance defined. — By the term Renaissance 
(New Birth), used in its narrower sense, is meant that new 
enthusiasm for classical literature, learning, and art which sprang 
up in Italy towards the close of the Middle Ages, and which 
during the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries gave 
a new culture to Europe. 1 

Using the word in a somewhat broader sense, we may define 
the Renaissance as the reentrance into the world of that secular, 
inquiring, self-reliant spirit which characterized the life and cul- 
ture of classical antiquity. This is simply to say that under the 
influence of the intellectual revival the men of Western Europe 
came to think and feel, to look upon life and the outer world, 
as did the men of ancient Greece and Rome; and this again 
is merely to say that they ceased to think and feel as mediaeval 
men and began to think and feel as modern men. 

670. Inciting Causes of the Movement in Italy. — Just as the 
Reformation went forth from Germany and the Political Revolu- 
tion from France, so did the Renaissance go forth from Italy. 
And this was not an accident. The Renaissance had its real begin- 
nings in Italy for the reason that all those agencies which were 
slowly transforming the mediaeval into the modern world were 
here more active and effective in their workings than elsewhere. 

Foremost among these agencies must be placed the influence 
of the Italian cities. We have already seen how city life was 
more perfectly developed in Italy than in the other countries of 
Western Europe. In the air of the great Italian city-republics 
there was nourished a political, intellectual, and artistic life like 
that of the cities of ancient Greece. Florence, for example, became 

1 By many writers the term is employed in a still narrower sense than this, being 
used to designate merely the revival of classical art. 

475 



476 



THE RENAISSANCE 



a second Athens, and in the eager air of that city individual talent 
and faculty were developed as of old in the atmosphere of the 
Attic capital. 

A second circumstance that doubtless contributed to make 
Italy the birthplace of the Renaissance was the fact that in Italy 
the break between the old and the new civilization was not so 
complete as it was in the other countries of Western Europe. 
The Italians were closer in language and in blood to the old 

Romans than were the 
other n e w-f orming 
nations. The cities 
themselves were, in a 
very exact sense, frag- 
ments of the old Empire ; 
and everywhere in the 
peninsula the ground was 
covered with ruins of the 
old Roman builders. 
The influence which 
these reminders of a 
great past exerted upon 
sensitive souls is well 
illustrated by the biog- 
raphies of such men as 
Rienzi and Petrarch. 

671. The Two Phases 
of the Italian Renais- 
sance. — The Renais- 
sance in Italy consisted 




Fig. 122. — Dante. (From a portrait by 
*S". Tofanelli) 



of two distinct yet closely related phases, namely, the revival of 
classical literature and learning, and the revival of classical art. 
It is with the first only, the intellectual and literary phase of the 
movement, that we shall be chiefly concerned. This side of the 
movement is called " Humanism," and the promoters of it are 
known as "Humanists," because of their interest in the study of 
the classics, the literce humaniores, or the "more human letters," 



DANTE AND THE RENAISSANCE 477 

in opposition to the diviner letters, that is, theology, which made 
up the old education. 

672. Dante as a Forerunner of the Renaissance. — Dante 
Alighieri, " the fame of the Tuscan people," was born at Florence 
in 1265. He was exiled by the Florentines in 1302, and at the 
courts of friends learned how hard a thing it is " to climb the 
stairway of a patron." He died at Ravenna in 132 1, and his 
tomb there is a place of pilgrimage to-day. 

It was during the years of his exile that Dante wrote his immor- 
tal poem, the Commedia as named by himself, because of its 
happy ending; the Divina Commedia, or the " Divine Comedy," 
as called by his admirers. This poem has been called the " Epic 
of Mediaevalism." It is an epitome of the life and thought of 
the Middle Ages. But although Dante viewed the world from a 
standpoint which was essentially that of the mediaeval age which 
was passing away, still he was in a profound sense a prophet of the 
new age which was approaching, ■ — a forerunner of the Renais- 
sance. He was such in his feeling for classical antiquity. He 
speaks lovingly of Vergil as his teacher and master, the one from 
whom he took the beautiful style that had done him honor. His 
modern attitude towards Graeco-Roman culture is further shown 
in his free use of the works of the classical writers ; the illustra- 
tive material of his great poem is drawn almost as largely from 
classical as from Hebrew and Christian sources. 

673. Petrarch, the First of the Humanists. — But the first and 
greatest of the humanists was Petrarch (1304-1374). To under- 
stand Petrarch is to understand the Renaissance. He was the first 
scholar of the mediaeval time who fully realized and appreciated 
the supreme excellence and beauty of the classical literature and 
its value as a means of culture. His enthusiasm for the ancient 
writers was a sort of worship. At great cost of time and labor he 
made a collection of about two hundred manuscript volumes of 
the classics. Among his choicest Latin treasures were some of 
Cicero's letters, which he had himself discovered in an old library 
and reverently copied with his own hand. He could not read 
Greek, yet he gathered Greek as well as Latin manuscripts. He 



478 



THE RENAISSANCE 



had sixteen works of Plato and a revered copy of Homer sent 
him from Constantinople ; and thus, as he himself expressed it, 
the first of poets and the first of philosophers took up their abode 
with him. Often he wrote letters to the old worthies, — Homer, 
Cicero, Vergil, and the rest, — for Petrarch loved thus to record 
his thoughts, and spent much of his time in the recreation of letter 
writing ; for recreation, and life itself, letter writing was to him. 

Petrarch's enthusiasm 
for the classical authors 
became contagious. 
Fathers reproached him 
for enticing their sons 
from the study of the 
law to the reading of 
the classics and the 
writing of Latin verses. 
But the movement 
started by Petrarch 
could not be checked. 
The impulse he im- 
parted to humanistic 
studies is still felt in 
the world of letters and 
learning. 

674. Boccaccio, the 
Disciple of Petrarch. — 
Petrarch called into 
existence a school of 




Fig. 12.3. — Petrarch. (From a portrait 
by S. Tofanelli) 



ardent young humanists who looked up to him as their master, 
and who carried on with unbounded enthusiasm the work of 
exploring the new spiritual hemisphere which he had discovered. 
Most distinguished among these disciples was Boccaccio (1313— 
1375). He industriously collected and copied ancient manu- 
scripts and thus greatly promoted classical scholarship in Italy. 
Imitating Petrarch, he tried to learn Greek, but, like Petrarch, 
made very little progress towards the mastery of the language 



THE SEARCH FOR OLD MANUSCRIPTS 479 

because of the incompetence of his teacher and also because of 
the utter lack of text-books, grammars, and dictionaries. He per- 
suaded his teacher, however, to make a Latin translation of the 
Iliad and the Odyssey, and was thus instrumental in giving to the 
world the first modern translation of Homer. It was a wretched 
version, yet it served to inspire in the Italian scholars an intense 
desire to know at first hand Greek literature, — that literature from 
which the old Roman authors had drawn their inspiration. 

675. The Search for Old Manuscripts. — Having now spoken Of 
the pioneers of Italian humanism in the fourteenth century, we 
can, in our remaining space, touch only in a very general way 
upon the most important phases of the humanistic movement in 
the following century. 

The first concern of the Italian scholars was to rescue from 
threatened oblivion what yet remained of the ancient classics. 
Just as the antiquarians of to-day dig over the mounds of Baby- 
lonia for relics of the ancient civilization of the East, so did the 
humanists ransack the libraries of the monasteries and cathe- 
drals and search through all the out-of-the-way places of Europe 
for old manuscripts of the classic writers. 

The precious manuscripts were often discovered in a shameful 
state of neglect and in advanced stages of decay. Sometimes 
they were found covered with mold in damp cells or loaded with 
dust in the attics of monasteries. This late search of the human- 
ists for the works of the ancient authors saved to the world many 
precious manuscripts which, a little longer neglected, would have 
been forever lost. 

676. Patrons of the New Learning; the Founding of Libraries. 
— This gathering and copying of the ancient manuscripts was 
costly in time and labor. But there was many a Maecenas to 
encourage and further the work. Prominent among these pro- 
moters of the New Learning, as it was called, were Cosimo and 
Lorenzo de' Medici at Florence. It was largely due to their 
enlightened interest in the great undertaking of recovering for 
culture the ancient literatures that Florence became the foster 
home of the intellectual and literary revival. 



480 THE RENAISSANCE 

Among the papal promoters of the movement Pope Nicholas V 
(1447-1455) was one of the most noted. He sent out explorers 
to all parts of the West to search for manuscripts, and kept busy 
at Rome a multitude of copyists and translators. A little later 
Pope Julius II (1503-15 13) and Pope Leo X (15 13-152 1) made 
Rome a brilliant center of Renaissance art and learning. 

Libraries were founded where the new treasures might be safely 
stored and made accessible to scholars. In this movement some 
of the largest libraries of Italy had their beginnings. At Rome 
Pope Nicholas V enriched the original papal collection of books 
by the addition, it is said, of fully five thousand manuscripts, and 
thus became the real founder of the celebrated Vatican Library. 

677. How the Fall of Constantinople aided the Revival. — The 
humanistic movement was given a great impulse by the disasters 
which in the fifteenth century befell the Eastern Empire. Con- 
stantinople, it will be recalled, was captured by the Ottoman 
Turks in 1453. But for a half century before that event the 
threatening advance of the barbarians had caused a great migra- 
tion of Greek scholars to the West. So many of the exiles sought 
an asylum in Italy that one could say : " Greece has not fallen; 
she has migrated to Italy, which in ancient times bore the name 
of Magna Graecia." 

These fugitives brought with them many valuable manuscripts 
of the ancient Greek classics still unknown to Western scholars. 
The enthusiasm of the Italians for everything Greek led to the 
appointment of many of the exiles as teachers in their schools 
and universities. Thus there was now a repetition of what took 
place at Rome in the days of the later republic (sec. 354) ; Italy 
was conquered a second time by the genius of Greece. 

678. The Invention of Printing. — During the latter part of the 
fifteenth century the work of the Italian humanists was greatly 
furthered by the happy and timely invention of the art of print- 
ing from movable letters, the most important discovery, in the 
estimation of Hallam, recorded in the annals of mankind. 

The making of impressions by means of engraved and lettered 
seals or blocks seems to be a device as old as civilization. The 



THE INVENTION OF PRINTING 



481 



Chinese have practiced this form of printing from an early time. 
The art appears to have sprung up independently in mediaeval 
Europe. During the first half of the fifteenth century many entire 
books were produced by the block-printing method. 

But printing from blocks was slow and costly. The art was 
revolutionized by John Gutenberg (1400- 1468), a native of 
Mainz in Germany, through the invention of the movable letters 
which we call type. The oldest book known to have been printed 




Fig. 124. — The Printing of Books. (From £flr/j/ Venetian Printing) 



from movable letters was a Latin copy of the Bible issued from 
the press of Gutenberg and Faust at Mainz between the years 
1454 and 1456. The art spread rapidly, and before the close 
of the fifteenth century presses were busy in every country of 
Europe — in the city of Venice alone there were two hundred — 
multiplying books with a rapidity undreamed of by the patient 
copyists of the cloister. 

The most celebrated of the early printing houses was that estab- 
lished at Venice by Aldus Manutius (1450-15 15) and known as 
the Aldine Press. In the course of a few years Aldus gave to the 



482 



THE RENAISSANCE 



appreciative scholars of Europe an almost complete series of the 
Greek authors, and many Latin and Hebrew texts. In quality of 
paper and in clearness and beauty of type his editions have never 
been surpassed. 

The work of the Aldine Press at Venice, in connection of course 
with what was done by presses of less note in other places, made 

complete the recovery 




of the classical litera- 
tures, and by scattering 
broadcast the works of 
the ancient authors ren- 
dered it impossible that 
any part of them should 
ever again become lost 
to the world. 

679. Humanism 
crosses the Alps. — As 
early as the middle of 
the fifteenth century the 
German youths had be- 
gun to cross the Alps in 
order to study Greek at 
the feet of the masters 
there. As the repre- 
sentative of these young 
German humanists we 
may name Reuchlin, 
who in 1482 journeyed 
to Italy and presented 
himself there before a celebrated teacher of Greek. As a test of 
his knowledge of the language he was given to translate a passage 
from Thucydides. The young barbarian — for by this term the 
Italians of that time expressed their contempt for an inhabitant 
of the rude North — turned the lines so easily and masterfully 
that the examiner, who was a native-born Greek, cried out in 
astonishment, "Our exiled Greece has flown beyond the Alps." 



Fig. 125. — Case of Chained Books 
(From Clarke, The Care of Books) 

In some libraries this practice of chaining the books 
was kept up even in the eighteenth century 



THE ARTISTIC REVIVAL 483 

In transalpine Europe the humanistic movement became 
blended with other tendencies. In Italy it had been an almost 
exclusive devotion to Greek and Latin letters and learning ; but in 
the North there was added to this enthusiasm for classical culture 
an equal and indeed supreme interest in Hebrew and Christian 
antiquity. The Renaissance, in a word, becomes the Reforma- 
tion ; the humanist becomes the reformer. 

680. The Artistic Revival ; Why Painting was the Supreme 
Art of the Italian Renaissance. — As we have already seen, the 
new feeling for classical antiquity awakened among the Italians 
embraced not simply the literary side of the Grasco-Roman cul- 
ture but the artistic side as well. Respecting this latter phase of 
the Italian Renaissance our space allows only a few words. 

The characteristic art of the Italian Renaissance was painting, 2 
and for the reason that it best expresses the ideas and sentiments 
of Christianity. The art that would be the handmaid of the 
Church needed to be able to represent faith and hope, ecstasy 
and suffering, — none of which things can well be expressed by 
sculpture, which is essentially the art of repose. 

Sculpture was the chief art of the Greeks, because the aim of 
the Greek artist was to represent physical beauty and strength. 
But the problem of the Christian artist is to express emotion 
through the medium of the body. This cannot be represented in 
cold, colorless marble. Thus, as Symonds asks, " How could the 
Last Judgment be expressed in plastic form? " The chief events 
of Christ's life removed him beyond the reach of sculpture. 

Therefore, because sculpture has so little power to express 
emotion, painting, which runs so easily the entire gamut of feel- 
ing, became the chosen medium of expression of the Italian artist. 
This art alone enabled him to portray the raptures of the saint, 
the sweet charm of the Madonna, the intense passion of the 
Christ, the moving terrors of the Last Judgment. 

2 Yet sculpture was not without eminent representatives. The following names are 
especially noteworthy: Ghiberti (1378-1455), whose genius is shown in his celebrated 
bronze gates of the Baptistery at Florence, of which Michael Angelo said that they 
were worthy to be the gates of Paradise; Brunelleschi (1377-1444) ; and Michael 
Angelo (1475-1564). 



484 THE RENAISSANCE 

681. The Four Masters; Mingling of Christian and Classical 
Subjects. — The four supreme masters of Italian Renaissance 
painting were Leonardo da Vinci (145 2-1 5 19), whose master- 
piece is his Last Supper, on the wall of a convent at Milan ; 
Raphael (1483-1520), the best beloved of artists, whose Ma- 
donnas are counted among the world's treasures ; Michael Angelo 
(1475-1564), whose best paintings are his wonderful frescoes, 
among them the Last Judgment, in the Sistine Chapel at Rome ; 
and Titian (1477-15 7 6), the Venetian master, celebrated for his 
portraits, which have preserved for us in flesh and blood, so to 
speak, many of the most noteworthy personages of his time. 

The earlier Italian painters drew their subjects chiefly from 
Christian sources. They literally covered the walls of the 
churches, palaces, and civic buildings of Italy with pictorial rep- 
resentations of all the ideas and imaginings of the mediaeval 
ages respecting death, the judgment, heaven, and hell. The later 
artists, more under the influence of the classical revival, mingled 
freely pagan and Christian subjects and motives, and thus became 
truer representatives than their predecessors of the Renaissance 
movement, one important issue of which was to be the blending 
of pagan and Christian culture. 

682. Evil and Good Results of the Classical Revival. — There 
were some serious evils inherent in the classical revival. In Italy, 
especially, where the humanistic spirit took most complete pos- 
session of society, it was "disastrous to both faith and morals." 
The study of the old pagan writers produced the result predicted 
by the monks, — caused a revival of paganism. To be learned 
in Greek was to excite suspicion of heresy. With the New Learn- 
ing came also those vices and immoralities that characterized the 
decline of classical civilization. Italy was corrupted by the new 
influences that flowed in upon her, just as Rome was corrupted 
by Grecian luxury and vice in the days of the failing Republic. 

On the other hand, the benefits of the movement to European 
civilization were varied and positive. First, the humanistic revival 
revolutionized education. During the Middle Ages the Latin lan- 
guage had degenerated, for the most part, into a barbarous jargon, 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 485 

while Greek had been forgotten. Humanism restored to the 
world the pure classical Latin, rediscovered the Greek language, 
and recovered for civilization the once-rejected heritage of the 
ancient classics. Chairs in both the Greek and Latin languages 
and literatures were now established, not only in the new univer- 
sities which arose under the inspiration of the New Learning, but 
also in the old ones. The Scholastic method of instruction, of 
which we spoke in a preceding chapter, was gradually superseded 
by this so-called classical system of education, which dominated 
the schools and universities of the world down to the incoming 
of the scientific studies of the present day. 

Second, the classical revival gave to Europe not only faultless 
literary models but also large stores of valuable knowledge. As 
President Woolsey says : " The old civilization contained treasures 
of permanent value which the world could not spare, which the 
world will never be able or willing to spare. These were taken 
up into the stream of life, and proved true aids to the progress of 
a culture which is gathering in one the beauty and truth of all 
the ages." 

Selections from the Sources. — Robinson and Rolfe, Petrarch. This 
volume contains a selection from Petrarch's " correspondence with Boc- 
caccio and other friends, designed to illustrate the beginnings of the 
Renaissance." The student should begin his readings on this subject 
with this delightful book. Whitcomb, Source-Book of the Renaissance, 
Part I. An excellent little book, which forms a good supplement to the pre- 
ceding work. Robinson, Readings in European History, vol. i, chap. xxii. 

Secondary Works. — The literature on the Renaissance is very exten- 
sive ; we shall suggest only a few titles. Symonds, J. A., The Renaissance 
in Italy, 7 vols.; the best extended history in English. P>urckhardt, J., 
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy ; the most philosophical and 
suggestive work on the subject. Mrs. Oliphant, Makers of Florence and 
Makers of Venice. Adams, G. B., Civilizatio7i during the Middle Ages, 
chap. xv. Munro, D. C, and Sellery, G. C, Medieval Civilization, 
pp. 277-309. Putnam, G. H., Books and their Makers during the Middle 
Ages, vol. i, Part II, "The Earlier Printed Books." Grimm, H., The Life 
of Michael Angela, 2 vols. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Dante's Divine Comedy. 2. The ruins 
of Rome in mediaeval times. 3. Petrarch's ascent of Mount Ventoux. 
4. Chrysoloras, the Greek teacher. 5. The Aldine Press. 



rt 



Division II — The Modern Age 

THIRD PERIOD — THE ERA OF THE 
REFORMATION 

(From the Discovery of America, in 1492, to the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648) 

CHAPTER LIV 

GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES AND THE BEGINNINGS OF 
MODERN COLONIZATION 

683. Preliminary Statements. — As an introduction to the his- 
tory of the Modern Age, we shall give a brief account of the 
voyages and geographical discoveries of Columbus, Vasco da 
Gama, and Magellan, and of the beginning of European con- 
quests and settlements in the New World, inasmuch as these 
great events lie at the opening of the era and form the prelude 
of its story. 

It should here be noted that the great ocean voyages of the 
times were rendered possible only by the fortunate invention of 
the mariner's compass, 1 whose trusty guidance emboldened the 
navigator to quit the shore and push out upon hitherto untrav- 
ersed seas. 

684. Portuguese Explorations; Prince Henry the Navigator. — 
Many incentives concurred to urge daring navigators in the later 
mediaeval time to undertake voyages of discovery, but a chief 
motive was a desire to find an ocean route from Europe to the 
Indies. 

1 It is a disputed question as to what people should be given the credit of the dis- 
covery of the properties of the magnetic needle. In a very primitive form the compass 
was certainly in use among the Chinese as early as the eighth century of our era. 
There is no reliable record of its use by European navigators before about the middle 
of the thirteenth century. It seems most probable that a knowledge of the instrument 
was gained in the East by the crusaders (sec. 584). 

486 



COLUMBUS FINDS THE NEW WORLD 



487 




The first attempts to reach these lands by an all-sea route 
were made by sailors feeling their way down the western coast of 
the African continent. The favorable situation of Portugal upon 
the Atlantic seaboard caused her to become foremost in these 
enterprises. The soul and inspiration of all this 
maritime enterprise was Prince Henry the Navigator 
(1394-1460). 

In i486 Bartholomew Dias succeeded in reaching 
the most southern point of the continent, which, as 
the possibility of reaching India by sea now seemed 
assured, was later given the name of Cape 
of Good Hope. But at the same time it 
was a disappointment to the Portuguese 
to find that Africa extended so far to the 
south. Even should India be reached, the 
way, it was now known, would be long and 
dangerous. This knowledge stimulated 
efforts to reach the Indies and the " place 
of spices" by a different and shorter route. 
685. Columbus in Search of a West- 
ward Route to the Indies finds the New 
World (1492). — It was Christopher 
Columbus, a Genoese by birth, who now 
proposed the bold plan of reaching these 
eastern lands by sailing westward. The sphericity of the earth 
was a doctrine held by all the really learned men of this time. 
This notion was also familiar to many at least of the common 
people ; but they, while vaguely accepting the view that the 
earth is round, thought that the habitable part was a compara- 
tively flat, shieldlike plain on the top of it. All the rest they 
thought to be covered by the waters of a great ocean. 

In his endeavors to secure a patron for his enterprise, Columbus 
met at first with repeated repulse and disappointment. At last, 
however, he gained the ear of Queen Isabella of Spain ; a little 
fleet was fitted out for the explorer, — and the New World was 
found. 



Fig. 126. — A Chinese 
Magnet Figure. 
(After Beazley) 

A rude form of the compass 
used by early Chinese 
sailors. The little 
wooden figure was set on 
a pivot, and in the out- 
stretched arm was placed 
a bar of magnetized iron 



488 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN COLONIZATION 



The return of Columbus to Spain with his vessels loaded with 
the strange animal and vegetable products of the new lands he 
had found, together with several specimens of the inhabitants, ■ — 
a race of men new to Europeans, — produced the profoundest 
sensation among all classes. Curiosity was unbounded. The spirit 
of hazardous enterprise awakened by the surprising discovery led 
to those subsequent undertakings by Castilian adventurers which 

make up the most 
thrilling pages of 
Spanish history. 

Columbus made 
altogether four voy- 
ages to the new 
lands ; still he died 
in ignorance of the 
fact that he had 
really discovered a 
new world. He sup- 
posed the land he 
had found to be some 
part of the Indies, 
whence the name 
"West Indies " which 
still clings to the 
islands between 
North and South 
America, and the 
term " Indians " applied to the aborigines. It was not until the 
middle of the sixteenth century that it became fully established 
that a great new double continent, separated from Asia by an 
ocean wider than the Atlantic, had been found. 

Columbus never received a fitting reward for the great service 
he had rendered mankind. Even the continent to which he had 
shown the way, instead of being called after him as a perpetual 
memorial, was named from a Florentine navigator, Amerigo Ves- 
pucci, whose chief claim to this distinction was his having written 
the first widely published account of the new lands. 




Fig. 127. — Christopher Columbus. (After 
the Capriolo portrait ; from the Columbus 
Memorial Volume) 



L> 



THE VOYAGE OF VASCO DA GAMA 489 

686. The Voyage of Vasco da Gama (1497-149 8); the Portu- 
guese create a Colonial Empire in the East. — We have seen that 
the Portuguese navigators, in their search for an ocean route to 
the Indies, had, before the first voyage of Columbus, reached the 
southern point of Africa. A little later, six years after the dis- 
covery of the New World, Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese admiral, 
doubled the Cape, crossed the Indian Ocean, and landed on the 
coast of Malabar. 

The discovery of an unbroken water path to India effected 
most important changes in the trade routes and traffic of the 
world. It made the port of Lisbon the depot of the Eastern 
trade. The merchants of Venice were ruined. The great ware- 
houses of Alexandria were left empty. The old route to the 
Indies by way of the Red Sea, which had been from time imme- 
morial a main line of communication between the Far East and 
the Mediterranean lands, now fell into disuse, not to be reopened 
until the construction of the Suez Canal in our own day. 

Portugal dotted the coasts of Africa and Asia, the Moluccas 
and other islands of the Pacific archipelago, with fortresses and 
factories, and built up in these parts a great commercial empire, 
and, through the extraordinary impulse thus given to the enter- 
prise and ambition of her citizens, now entered upon the most 
splendid era of her history. 

687. The Papal Line of Demarcation. — Upon the return of 
Columbus from his successful expedition, Pope Alexander VI, 
with a view to adjusting the conflicting claims of Spain and Por- 
tugal, issued a bull wherein he drew from pole to pole a line of 
demarcation through +\e Atlantic one hundred leagues west of 
the Azores (the line \vas afterwards moved two hundred and 
seventy leagues farther west), and gave to the Spanish sovereigns 
all pagan lands, not already in possession of Christian princes, 
that their subjects might find west of this line, and to the Portu- 
guese kings all unclaimed pagan lands discovered by Portuguese 
navigators east of the designated meridian. By treaty arrange- 
ments, as well as by papal edicts, the Portuguese were prohibited 
from sailing any of the seas thus placed under the dominion 
of Spain or from visiting as traders any of her lands, and the 



490 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN COLONIZATION 

Spaniards from trespassing upon the waters or the lands granted 
to the Portuguese. 

Spain was thus shut out from the use of the Cape route to the 
Indies which had been opened up by Vasco da Gama, and con- 
sequently from participation in the coveted spice trade, unless 
perchance a way to the region of spices could be found through 
some opening in the new lands discovered by Columbus. 

688. The Circumnavigation of the Globe by Magellan (1519- 
1522). — Such was the situation of things when Ferdinand 
Magellan, a navigator of Portuguese birth, laid before the young 
Emperor Charles V, grandson of the Isabella who had given 
Columbus his commission, his plan of reaching the Moluccas, or 
" Spice Islands," which he contended were in Spanish waters, 2 by 
a westward voyage. The young king looked with favor upon the 
navigator's plans, and placed under his command a fleet of five 
small vessels. 

Magellan directed his ships in a southwesterly course across 
the Atlantic, hoping to find towards the south a break in the new- 
found lands. Near the most southern point of South America he 
found the narrow strait that now bears his name. Through this 
channel the bold sailor pushed his vessels and found himself upon 
a great sea with a blank horizon to the west. From the calm, 
unruffled face of the new ocean, so different from the stormy 
Atlantic, he gave to it the name Pacific. 

After a most adventurous voyage upon the hitherto untraversed 
waters of the new sea, the expedition reached the group of islands 
now known as the Philippines, having been so named in honor 
of Philip II, Charles' son and his successor on the Spanish throne. 
The year following the discovery of the Philippines a single 
battered ship of the fleet, the Victoria, with eighteen men out 
of the original crews of over two hundred sailors, entered the 
Spanish port of Seville. The globe had for the first time been cir- 
cumnavigated. " In the whole history of human undertakings," 
says Draper, " there is nothing that exceeds, if, indeed, there is 

2 There was difficulty in determining just where among the islands lying southeast 
of Asia the papal line of demarcation, when carried around the globe, should run. 



CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE 



491 




anything that equals, this voyage of Magellan's. That of Columbus 
dwindles away in comparison." 

Equally does the exploit seem to have impressed the imagi- 
nation of Magellan's own age. The old writer Richard Eden 
(b. about 152 1) refers to it as "a thing doubtless so strange and 
marvelous that, as the like 
was never done before, so 
is it perhaps never like to 
be done again ; so far have 
the navigations of the 
Spaniards excelled the voy- 
age of Jason and the Argo- 
nauts to the region of 
Colchis, or all that ever 
were before"; and a 
Spanish contemporary de- 
clares, "Nothing more 
notable in navigation has 
ever been heard of since 
the voyage of the patriarch 
Noah." 

The results of the 
achievement were greatest 
in the intellectual realm. 
It revolutionized whole 
systems of mediaeval theory 
and belief ; it pushed aside old narrow geographical ideas ; it set- 
tled forever and for all men the question as to the shape and size 
of the earth. It brought to an end the scholastic controversy con- 
cerning the antipodes, — that is, whether there were men living 
on the " under " side of the earth. The state of most men's minds 
in regard to this matter had till then been just about the same 
as is ours to-day on the question whether or not the planets are 
inhabited. 3 



Fig. 128. — "The Antipodes in Deri- 
sion." (From C o s m a s, Christian 
Topography ; after Beazley, The Dawn 
of Modern Geography) 

Cosmas lived in the sixth Christian century. In 
the cut here reproduced from his Topography, 
he ridicules the idea of a round earth with 
people on the under side whose heads hang 
downwards. The views of Cosmas as to the 
existence of an antipodal people had de- 
fenders throughout the mediaeval centuries 



3 It is worthy of note that while Columbus, Magellan, and others were making 
known the truth about the earth itself, Nicholas Copernicus (i473- I 543) was 



492 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN COLONIZATION 

689. The Five Early Colonial Empires. — One of the most im- 
portant outcomes of the voyages and geographical discoveries of 
which we have been speaking was the expansion of the five states 
on the Atlantic seaboard of Europe — namely, Portugal, Spain, 
France, the Netherlands, and England — each into a great empire, 
embracing colonies and dependencies in two hemispheres. This 
expansion of Europe into Greater Europe holds somewhat such a 
place in modern history as the expansion of Hellas into Greater 
Hellas and of Rome into Greater Rome holds in ancient history. 

In the mutual jealousies and conflicting interests of these 
growing colonial empires is to be found the ground and cause 
of many of the great wars of modern times since the close of 
the religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
For this reason, although it is our special task to trace the lines 
of the historic development in Europe, we shall from time to 
time call the reader's attention to these European interests out- 
side of the European continent. In the present connection a 
few words in regard to Spanish conquests and the beginnings 
of Spanish colonization in the New World will suffice. 

690. The Conquest of Mexico (15 19-15 21). — The accounts 
of Spanish explorations and conquests in the lands opened up 
by the fortunate voyage of Columbus read more like a romance 
than any other chapter in history. 4 Perhaps the most brilliant 
exploit in which the Spanish cavaliers engaged during this period 
of daring adventure was the conquest of Mexico. Reports of a 
rich and powerful " Empire " upon the mainland to the west were 
constantly spread among the Spanish colonists who very soon 
after the discovery of the New World settled the islands in the 

discovering its true place in the solar system. He had quite fully matured his theory 
by the year 1507, but, fearing the charge of heresy, he did not publish the great work 
embodying his views until thirty-six years later (in 1543). The Copernican theory, 
however, had little influence on the thought of the sixteenth century. It was 
denounced as contrary to Scripture by both Catholics and Protestants, and was 
almost universally rejected for more than a hundred years after its first publication. 
4 Juan Ponce de Leon started on his romantic expedition in search of the fabled 
Fountain of Youth in 1512; Vasco de Balboa discovered the Pacific in 1513; Hern- 
ando de Soto, while searching for a rich Indian kingdom, found the Mississippi in 
x S4i- 



THE CONQUEST OF PERU 493 

Gulf of Mexico. These stories inflamed the imagination of adven- 
turous spirits among the settlers, and an expedition, consisting of 
five or six hundred foot soldiers and sixteen horsemen, was organ- 
ized and placed under the command of Hernando Cortes for the 
conquest and " conversion " of the heathen nation. The expedi- 
tion was successful, and soon the Spaniards were masters of the 
greater part of what now constitutes the republic of Mexico. 

The state that the conquerors destroyed was not an empire, 
as termed by the contemporary Spanish chroniclers, but rather 
a sort of league, or confederacy, — something like the Iroquois 
confederacy in the North, — formed of three Indian tribes. 5 Of 
these the Aztecs were the leading tribe and gave name to the con- 
federacy. At the head of the league stood a sachem, or war-chief, 
who bore the name of Montezuma. 

The Mexican Indians had taken some steps in civilization. 
They employed a system of picture writing, and had cities and 
temples. But they were cannibals and offered human victims in 
their sacrifices. They had no knowledge of the horse or the ox, 
or of any other useful domesticated animal except the dog. 6 They 
cultivated maize, but were without wheat, oats, or barley. 

691. The Conquest of Peru (1532-1536). — Shortly after the 
conquest of the Indians of Mexico the subjugation of the Indians 
of Peru was effected. The civilization of the Peruvians was supe- 
rior to that of the Mexicans. It has been compared, as to several 
of its elements, to that of ancient Assyria. Not only were the 
great cities of the empire filled with splendid temples and pal- 
aces, but throughout the country were to be seen magnificent 
works of public utility, such as roads, bridges, and aqueducts. 
The government of the Incas, the royal or ruling race, was a 
mild, paternal autocracy. 

5 Prescott's description of the Mexican state, especially as to its political organi- 
zation, is misleading. For later authorities see bibliography at end of the chapter. 

6 It has been conjectured that the backwardness in civilization of the native races 
of the Americas is to be attributed in part to their lack of useful tame animals. See 
Fiske, The Discovery of America, vol. i, p. 27. Aside from the llama, the alpaca, 
and the turkey, the New World has contributed nothing of essential value to the 
great store of domesticated stocks which constitute the basis of so large a part of 
modern industry. 



494 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN COLONIZATION 

Glowing reports of the enormous wealth of the Incas, the com- 
monest articles in whose palaces, it was asserted, were of solid 
gold, reached the Spaniards by way of the Isthmus of Darien, and 
it was not long before an expedition, consisting of less than two 
hundred men, was organized for the conquest of the country. The 
leader of the band was Francisco Pizarro, an iron-hearted, cruel, 
and illiterate adventurer. 

Through treachery Pizarro made a prisoner of the Inca, Ata- 
hualpa. The captive offered, as a ransom for his release, to fill 
the room in which he was confined "as high as he could reach" 
with vessels of gold. Pizarro accepted the offer, and the palaces 
and temples throughout the empire were stripped of their golden 
vessels, and the apartment was filled with the precious relics. The 
value of the treasure is estimated at over $15,000,000. When 
this vast wealth was once under the control of the Spaniards, 
they seized it all, and then treacherously put the Inca to death 
( I 533)- With the death of Atahualpa the power of the Inca 
dynasty passed away forever. 

692. Beginnings of Spanish Colonization in the New World. — 
Not until more than one hundred years after the discovery of 
the Western Hemisphere by Columbus was there established a 
single permanent English settlement within the limits of what is 
now the United States ; but into those parts of the new lands 
opened up by Spanish exploration and conquest there began to 
pour at once a stream of Spanish adventurers and colonists in 
search of fortune and fame. Upon the West India Islands, in 
Mexico, in Central America, all along the Pacific slope of the 
Andes, and everywhere upon the lofty and pleasant tablelands 
that had formed the heart of the empire of the Incas there sprang 
up rapidly cities as centers of mining and agricultural industries, 
of commerce and of trade. Often, as in the case of Mexico, 
Quito, and Cuzco, these new cities were simply the renovated and 
rebuilt towns of the conquered natives. 

Thus did a Greater Spain grow up in the New World. Before 
the close of the sixteenth century the dominions of the Spanish 
monarch in the new lands formed of themselves a magnificent 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 495 

empire, and were the source of a large revenue to the royal ex- 
chequer. It was, in part, the treasures derived from these new 
possessions that enabled the sovereigns of Spain to play the im- 
portant part they did in the affairs of Europe during the century 
following the discovery of America. 7 

Selections from the Sources. — Cathay and the Way Thither (ed. by 
Colonel Henry Yule). The student here learns with what knowledge of 
Eastern Asia Columbus and the others set out, and what they expected to 
find. The Journal of Christopher Columbus (Hakluyt Society publications). 
Old South Leaflets, Nos. 29, 31-36, 39, 71, 89, 90, 102. The First Three Eng- 
lish Books on America (ed. by Edward Arber). This work possesses a special 
fascination. " One is able therein," as says the editor, " to look out on the 
New World as its discoverers and first explorers looked upon it." 

Secondary Works. — Keane, J., The Evolution of Geography, chaps, v-viii. 
Beazley, C. R., Prince Henry the Navigator. There are numerous lives of 
Columbus: Winsor's, Irving's, and C. K. Adams' are recommended. 
Guillemard, F. H. H., The Life of Ferdinand Magellan. FlSKE, J., The 
Discovery of America, 2 vols. There is not a chapter here that will fail to 
interest and charm young readers. The Cambridge Modern History, vol. i, 
chap, i, "The Age of Discovery"; and chap, ii, "The New World." 
Bourne, E. G., Essays in Historical Criticism, Essay No. 6, " Prince 
Henry the Navigator," and Essay No. 7, " The Demarcation Line of Pope 
Alexander VI"; and Spain in America (1450-1580). Prescott, W. II., 
Conquest of Mexico and Conquest of Peru (various editions). Stephens, 
H. Morse, Albuquerque. Payne, E. J., History of the New World, called 
America, vol. i, pp. 303-364; for the relation of the aboriginal civilizations 
of the Americas to their animal and plant life. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Prince Henry the Navigator. 2. The 
naming of America. See article by Professor E. G. Bourne, in The A?ner- 
ican Historical Review for October, 1904. 3. Civilization of the Peruvians. 

7 After having robbed the Indians of their wealth in gold and silver, the slow 
accumulations of centuries, the Spaniards further enriched themselves by the enforced 
labor of the unfortunate natives. Unused to such toil as was exacted of them under 
the lash of worse than Egyptian taskmasters, the Indians wasted away by millions 
in the mines of Mexico and Peru, and upon the sugar plantations of the West Indies. 
More than half of the native population of Peru is thought to have been consumed 
in the Peruvian mines. As a substitute for native labor, negroes were introduced. 
This was the beginning of the African slave trade in the New World. At the outset 
the traffic was approved by a benevolent bishop named Las Casas (1474-1566), known 
as the "Apostle of the Indians." Before his death, however, Las Casas came to 
recognize the wickedness of negro as well as of Indian slavery, and to regret that he 
had ever expressed approval of the plan of substituting one for the other. See Fiske, 
The Discovery of America, vol. ii, pp. 454-458. 



496 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN COLONIZATION 



SUGGESTION TO TEACHERS — COMPARATIVE STUDY 

In no way, we think, will the teacher be able to give his pupils so 
clear an idea of the character of the sixteenth century as by having 
them make a comparative study of that century and the nineteenth. 
The striking parallels which they will discover between the two 
periods will be sure to suggest to them that "the wonderful nine- 
teenth century," as it is called by Alfred Russel Wallace, like the 
sixteenth, may be a transition period, a period which will be regarded 
by the future historian as we regard the sixteenth, — as the beginning 
of a new age in history. The following will suggest in what realms 
parallels may be sought. 



The Sixteenth Century 

The New Learning. Great intellec- 
tual activity. 

The Reformation. Revision of creeds. 
Relation of the religious move- 
ment to the Renaissance. 



c. The unification of great nations, — 

England, France, Spain. 

d. The expansion of Europe; the par- 

tition of the New World and of 
Southern Asia. The formation of 
colonial empires, — Portuguese, 
Spanish, Dutch, French, and Eng- 
lish. 

e. Great geographical and astronom- 

ical discoveries (Columbus, Coper- 
nicus), which reveal the universe 
as infinite in space. Man's concep- 
tions of the earth and its place in 
the universe revolutionized. 

f. Great inventions, now first hit upon or 

brought into general use, — print- 
ing, gunpowder, and the mariner's 
compass. Political, social, and 
economic revolutions caused or 
promoted by them. 



The Nineteenth Century 

The New Sciences. Great intellectual 
activity. 

The New Theology. Revision of 
creeds. Relation of this movement 
to the birth of the new scientific 
spirit. 

The unification of great nations, — 
Germany, Italy. 

The expansion of Europe; the par- 
tition of Africa and of Oceania. 
The formation of new colonial 
empires, — English, French, Ger- 
man, Belgian, and American. 

Great geological and biological dis- 
coveries {Evolution — Lyell, Dar- 
win), which reveal the universe as 
infinite in time. Man's conceptions 
as to his origin and his place in 
the plan of creation revolutionized. 

Great inventions, — the steam rail- 
way, the ocean steamship, the elec- 
tric telegraph, electric motor, etc. 
Political, social, and economic revo- 
lutions caused or furthered by their 
introduction. 



CHAPTER LV 
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION 

693. Introductory Statement When the Modern Age opened 

the European peoples were on the eve of a great religious revolu- 
tion known as the Reformation. In the present chapter we shall 
speak of the causes and the beginnings of this revolution in 
Germany. 

694. Extent of Rome's Spiritual Authority at the Opening of 
the Sixteenth Century. — In a preceding chapter on the Papacy 
it was shown how nearly perfect at one time was the obedience 
of the West not only to the spiritual but also to the temporal 
authority of the Pope. It was also shown how the papal claim 
of the right to a certain oversight of temporal or governmental 
affairs was practically rejected by the princes and sovereigns of 
Europe as early as the fourteenth century (sec. 589). But previ- 
ous to the opening of the sixteenth century there had been com- 
paratively few — there had been some, like the Albigenses in the 
south of France, the Wyckliffites in England, and the Hussites in 
Bohemia — who denied the supreme and infallible authority of 
the bishops of Rome in matters purely religious. Speaking in a 
very general manner, it would be correct to say that at the close 
of the fifteenth century all the nations of Western Europe pro- 
fessed the faith of the Catholic Church and yielded spiritual 
obedience to the papal see. 

695. Causes of the Reformation. — We must now seek the 
causes which led one half of the nations of Europe to secede 
from the papal Church. There were various causes. One cause 
was the Renaissance, that great intellectual awakening which 
marked the close of the mediaeval and the opening of the modern 
epoch. The promoters of the New Learning and the upholders 
of the old Scholastic theology came into collision (sec. 730), and 
this helped to prepare the way for the great schism. 

497 



498 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION 

A second cause of the revolution was the existence in the 
Church of most serious scandals. The necessity of the thorough 
reform of the Church, in both " head and members," was recog- 
nized by all earnest and spiritually minded men. The only differ- 
ence of opinion among such was as to the manner in which the 
work of renovation should be effected, whether from within or 
from without, by reform or by revolution. 

A third cause was jealousy of the Papacy on the part of the 
temporal princes. It is true that the claims to temporal suprem- 
acy put forward by some of the mediaeval popes were no longer 
maintained ; still there remained a very large field embracing mat- 
ters such as appointment or nomination to Church offices, the 
taxation of the clergy and of Church property, questions concern- 
ing marriages, wills, and so on, which the popes as the guardians 
of religion claimed the right to regulate or to review. Thus the 
nations were really very far from being independent. As respects 
many matters they were virtually provinces of an ecclesiastical 
world empire centered at Rome. 

But foremost among the proximate causes, and the actual 
occasion of the revolution, was the controversy which arose about 
the doctrine of Indulgences. An Indulgence, as denned by Cath- 
olic theologians, is the remission of that temporal 1 punishment 
which often remains due on account of sin after its guilt has 
been forgiven. It is granted on the performance of some work 
of piety, charity, or mercy, which often includes an alms to the 
poor or a gift of money to promote some good work, and takes 
effect only upon certain conditions, among which is that of con- 
fession of sin and sincere repentance. 

Before the time of the Reformation, Indulgences had been fre- 
quently granted by various pontiffs, with different objects in view. 
A great part of the money for the building of St. Peter's at Rome 
was obtained in this manner. 

696. Tetzel and the Preaching of Indulgences. — Leo X, upon 
his election to the papal dignity in 15 13, found the coffers of the 

1 By " temporal " punishment is meant penances imposed by the Church and the 
temporary pains of purgatory, as opposed to the eternal punishment of hell. 



THE PREACHING OF INDULGENCES 499 

Church almost empty, and being in pressing need of money to 
carry on his various undertakings, among which was work upon 
St. Peter's, he had recourse to the now common expedient of 
a grant of Indulgences. He delegated the power of dispensing 
these in a great part of Germany to Archbishop Albert of Mainz. 
As his deputy, Albert employed a Dominican friar by the name 
of John Tetzel. 

The archbishop was unfortunate in the selection of his agent. 
Tetzel carried out his commission in such a way as to give rise to 
a great scandal. The language that he and his subordinates used 
in exhorting the people to comply with the conditions of gain- 
ing the Indulgences — one of which was a donation of money — 
was unseemly and exaggerated. The result was that erroneous 
views as to the effect of Indulgences began to spread among 
the ignorant and credulous, many being so far misled as to 
think that if they only contributed this money to the building 
of St. Peter's in Rome they would be exempt from all penalty 
for sins, paying little heed to the other conditions, such as sor- 
row for sin and purpose of amendment. Hence serious persons 
were led to declaim against the procedure of the zealous friar. 
These protests were the near mutterings of a storm that had 
long been gathering, and that was soon to shake all Western 
Christendom. 

697. Martin Luther. — Foremost among those who opposed 
and denounced the methods used by Tetzel was Martin Luther, 
an Augustinian monk and teacher of theology in the University 
of Wittenberg. This great reformer was born in Saxony in 1483. 
He was of humble parentage, his father being a poor miner. Just 
as a career planned by his father in the profession of the law was 
opening before him, he suddenly turned his back upon the world 
and entered a convent. Before Tetzel appeared in Germany, 
Luther had already earned a wide reputation for learning and 
piety. 

698. The Ninety-Five Theses (15 17). — When Tetzel began in 
the neighborhood of Wittenberg the preaching of Indulgences in 
the scandalous manner to which we have just alluded, Luther was 



500 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION 



greatly distressed. He drew up in protest ninety-five theses bear- 
ing on Indulgences, and nailed them upon the door of the castle 
church at Wittenberg. It was a custom of those times for a 
scholar thus to post propositions which he was willing to maintain 
against any and all comers. An examination of the theses shows 

that Luther at this time 
still held the generally 
accepted view both as 
to purgatory and the 
validity of Indulgences, 
and that his protest was 
aimed only at abuses. 

By means of the press 
the theses were spread 
broadcast. They were 
eagerly read and com- 
mented upon by all 
classes, particularly in 
Germany. Tetzel issued 
counter-propositions. 
The air was thick with 
controversial leaflets. 
At first Pope Leo had 
been inclined to make 
light of the whole mat- 
ter, but at length he felt 
constrained to take de- 
cisive measures against 
Luther. The monk was to be silenced by means of a papal 
bull. 

699. Luther's "Address to the Christian Nobility of the German 
Nation" (July, 1520). — Luther heard that the bull was soon to 
be launched against him. He anticipated its arrival by the issu- 
ance to the German nobility of a remarkable address, which has 
been called " The Manifesto of the Reformation." It was prac- 
tically a German declaration of independence of Rome. Luther 




Fig. 129. — Martin Luther. (After the 
portrait by Lucas Cranach, the elder; 
Uffizi Gallery, Florence) 



LUTHER BURNS THE PAPAL BULL 501 

demanded, among other things, that payment to the Pope of 
annates 2 should be forbidden by the princes, nobles, and cities, 
or that they should be wholly abolished ; that the Pope should 
have no power whatever over the Emperor, " save to anoint and 
crown him at the altar " ; and that the secular clergy should be 
free to marry or not to marry. 3 

700. Luther burns the Papal Bull (Dec. 10, 1520). — At length 
a copy of the papal bull came into Luther's hands. Forty-one 
propositions selected from his writings were therein condemned 
either as "heretical" or as "scandalous," and all persons were 
.forbidden to read his books, which were ordered to be burned ; 
and he himself, if he did not retract his errors within sixty days, 
was, together with all his adherents, to be regarded as having 
"incurred the penalty due for heresy." 

Luther now took a startling determination. He resolved to 
burn the papal bull. A fire was kindled outside one of the 
gates of Wittenberg, and in the presence of a great throng of 
doctors, students, and citizens, Luther cast the bull, together with 
the papal decretals and some books of his opponents, into the 
flames. The audacious proceeding raised a terrible storm, which 
raged " high as the heavens, wide as the earth." Luther wrote a 
friend that he believed the tempest could never be stilled before 
the day of judgment. 

701. The Diet of Worms (15 21). — Affairs had now assumed a 
threatening aspect. All Germany was in a state of revolt. The 
papal supremacy was imperiled. The papal ban having failed 

2 Annates, or first fruits, were the first year's revenue, or some portion of the first 
year's revenue, of a benefice paid to the Pope by a bishop, abbot, or other ecclesiastic 
for the papal confirmation in his office. This was a most important source of reve- 
nue to the Roman court. The temporal princes naturally regarded with great jeal- 
ousy these payments by their subjects to the Pope, since in this way immense sums 
of money passed out of their dominions and into the Roman treasury. In England 
the prohibition of the payment of first fruits to the Pope was one of the earliest steps 
taken in the separation from Rome. See sec. 738. 

3 Luther was not at this time ready to release monks from their vows. Gradually, 
however, his views changed and he came to regard the celibacy of the monks as 
opposed to Scripture teachings. In the year 1525, acting upon his maturer views, he 
married Catharine Bora, a former nun. This violation by Luther of his monastic 
vows was made the subject of bitter reproach against him by his enemies. 



502 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION 

to produce any effect, Pope Leo now invoked the aid of the 
recently elected Emperor Charles V in extirpating the spreading 
heresy. He wished Luther to be sent to Rome for trial there. 
Luther's friends, however, persuaded Charles not to accede to the 
Pope's request, but to permit Luther to be heard in Germany. 
Accordingly Luther received an imperial summons to appear at 
Worms before an assembly of the princes, nobles, and clergy of 
Germany to be convened for the purpose of deliberating upon the 
affairs of the country, and especially upon matters touching the 
great religious controversy. 

Called upon in the imperial assembly to recant his errors, 
Luther replied in substance : " I cannot, I will not, retract any- 
thing, unless what I have written shall be shown to be contrary 
to Holy Scripture or to plain reason, for to act against conscience 
is neither safe nor upright." His closing words were impressive : 
" I can do no otherwise ; here I stand, God help me, Amen." 

Although some wished to deliver the reformer to the flames, 
the safe-conduct of the Emperor under which he had come to 
the Diet protected him. So Luther was allowed to depart in 
safety, but was followed by the ban of the Empire. 

702. Luther at the Wartburg"~(i5 2i-i52 2). — Luther, how- 
ever, had powerful friends, among whom was his own prince, 
Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony. Solicitous for the safety 
of the reformer, the prince caused him to be seized on his way 
from the Diet by a company of masked horsemen, who carried 
him to the castle of the Wartburg, where he was kept about a 
year, his retreat being known only to a few friends. 

During this period of forced retirement from the world Luther 
was busy writing pamphlets and translating the Bible. Appeal 
had been made to the Scriptures, — " Prove it from the Scrip- 
tures," was the constant challenge of the reformers to their op- 
ponents, — hence it was necessary that the Scriptures should 
be accessible in a language understood by all. In giving Ger- 
many this translation of the Bible, Luther rendered some such 
service to the German tongue, by fixing its literary forms, as 
Dante rendered to the Italian through his Divi?ie Comedy. 



THE REFORMERS CALLED PROTESTANTS 503 

703. The Peasants' War (1524-1525). — Before quite a year 
had passed Luther was drawn from the Wartburg by the troubles 
caused by certain radical reformers whose preaching was occa- 
sioning tumult and violence, and thereby bringing into discredit 
the whole reform movement. Luther's sudden appearance at Wit- 
tenberg gave a temporary check to the agitation. 

But in the course of two or three years the trouble broke out 
afresh, and in a more complex and aggravated form. The peas- 
ants of Suabia and Franconia, stung to madness by the oppres- 
sions of their feudal lords, stirred by the religious excitement 
that filled the air, and influenced by the incendiary preaching 
of their prophets Carlstadt and Miinzer, rose in revolt against 
the nobles and the priests, — against all in authority. 4 Castles 
and monasteries were sacked and burned, and horrible outrages 
were committed. The rebellion was finally crushed, but not 
until a hundred thousand lives had been sacrificed, a large part 
of South Germany devastated, and great reproach cast upon the 
reformers, whose teachings were held by their enemies to be the 
whole cause of the ferment. 

704. The Reformers are called Protestants. — But in spite of 
all these discrediting movements the reform made rapid progress. 
The friends of the ancient Church became alarmed. In the year 
1529 there gathered an assembly known as the Second Diet of 
Spires to consider the matter. The action of the Catholic majority 
of this body took away from the reformed princes and cities the 
right they had hitherto enjoyed of determining what form of 
religion should be followed in their domains, and forbade the 
teaching of certain of the new doctrines until a Church council 
should have pronounced authoritatively upon them. 

Six of the German princes and a large number of the cities of 
the Empire issued a formal protest against the action of the Diet, 
denying the power or right of a majority to bind the minority in 
matters of religion and conscience. Because of this protest the 
reformers from this time began to be known as Protestants. 

4 The demands of the peasants were embodied in a document known as the 
Twelve Articles. See Translations and Reprints (Univ. of Penn.), vol. ii, No. 6. 



504 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION 

705. The Catholic Reaction ; its Causes and Agents. — Even 
before the death of Luther, which occurred in the year 15 46/ 
the Reformation had gained a strong foothold in most of the 
countries of Western Christendom, save in Spain and Italy, and 
even in these parts the new doctrines had made some progress. 
But several causes now conspired to check the hitherto trium- 
phant advance of Protestantism and to enable the old Church to 
regain much of the ground that had been lost. Chief among these 
were the divisions among the Protestants, the Counter-Reform in 
the Catholic Church, the increased activity of the Inquisition, the 
rise of the Society of the Jesuits, and Spain's zealous champion- 
ship of Catholicism. 

706. Divisions among the Protestants. — Early in their contest 
with the Roman see the Protestants became divided into three 
mutually hostile sects, — Lutherans, Zwinglians, and Calvinists. 

The creed of the Lutherans came to prevail very generally in 
North Germany, and was received in Denmark, Norway, and 
Sweden. It also spread into the Netherlands, but there it was 
soon overshadowed by Calvinism. Of all the Protestant sects the 
Lutherans made the least departure from the Catholic Church. 

The Zwinglians, followers of Huldreich Zwingli (1484-15 31), 
differed from the Lutherans particularly in their views regarding 
the Eucharist and in the matter of church organization. Their 
creed became dominant in the greater part of German Switzer- 
land, and from there spread into Southern Germany. 

The Calvinists were followers of John Calvin (15 09-1 564), a 
Frenchman by birth, who, forced to flee from France on account 
of persecution, found a refuge at Geneva, which city he made 
the center of a movement even more extended and historically 
important than that having its point of departure at Wittenberg. 
We can best remember the wide range of Calvinism and its remark- 
able influence upon the history of the sixteenth and seventeenth 

5 After the death of Luther the leadership of the Reformation in Germany fell 
to Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), one of Luther's friends and fellow-workers. 
Melanchthon's disposition was exactly the opposite of Luther's. He often reproved 
Luther for his indiscretion and vehemence, and was constantly laboring to effect, 
through mutual concessions, a reconciliation between the Catholics and Protestants. 



THE CATHOLIC COUNTER-REFORM 505 

centuries by keeping in mind that the French Huguenots, the 
Scotch Covenanters, the Dutch Netherlanders (in large part), the 
English Puritans, and the Pilgrim Fathers were all Calvinists. 

These great Protestant communions finally broke up into a 
large number of denominations, or churches, each holding to 
some minor point of doctrine or adhering to some form of wor- 
ship disregarded by the others, yet all agreeing in the central 
doctrine of the Reformation, " justification by faith alone." 

Now the contentions between these different sects were sharp 
and bitter. The liberal-minded reformer had occasion to lament 
the same state of things as that which troubled the Apostle Paul 
in the early days of Christianity. One said, I am of Luther ; 
another said, I am of Calvin ; and another said, I am of Zwingli. 
Even Luther himself denounced Zwingli as a heretic ; and the 
Calvinists would have no dealings with the Lutherans. 

The influence of these sectarian strifes and divisions upon the 
progress of the reform movement was most disastrous. They 
afforded the Catholics a strong and effective argument against the 
entire movement as tending to uncertainty and discord. 

707. The Catholic Counter-Reform; the Council of Trent (1545- 
1563); Carlo Borromeo. — As we have seen, it was the existence 
of acknowledged evils and scandals in the old Church that had 
contributed greatly to undermine its authority and to weaken its 
hold upon the reverence and the consciences of men. It was the 
correction of these evils and the removal of these scandals which 
did much to restore its lost influence and authority. 

This reform, which even before the rise of Protestantism had 
already begun within the Catholic Church, was carried out in 
great measure by the memorable Council of Trent (1 545-1 563). 
This body, the most important Church assembly since that of 
Nicsea, a.d. 325, with the voice of authority passed upon all the 
points that had been raised by the reformers. It declared the 
traditions of the Church to be of equal authority with the Bible ; 
it reasserted the divine character of the Papacy ; it condemned 
as heresy the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith alone. It 
made everything so clear that no one, not even a wayfaring man, 



506 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION 

need err either in doctrine or in duty. It also demanded that 
the lives of all priests and bishops should be an exemplification 
of Christian purity and morality. These measures of the council 
helped greatly to check the Protestant movement. The correc- 
tion of the abuses that had had so much to do in causing the 
great schism, smoothed the way for the return to the ancient 
Church of thousands who had become alarmed at the dangers 
into which society seemed to drift when once it cast loose from 
anchorage in the safe harbor of tradition and authority. 

The spirit in which the Council of Trent had done its work 
finds illustration in the exalted character and devoted life of 
the Italian reformer, Carlo Borromeo (1538-15 88). In him the 
reforming spirit of the great council was incarnate. He became 
Archbishop of Milan, and took as his model the holy Ambrose, 
who, twelve centuries before, in the corrupt times of the failing 
Roman Empire, had won sainthood in that same see. He reno- 
vated and restored the desecrated and deserted churches, reformed 
the lax and dissolute lives of the clergy, restored discipline in the 
religious orders, and established schools and colleges. It was due 
largely to his zealous labors and to the happy contagion of his 
holy example that a new spiritual life was created in Milan and 
the regions round about, that popular veneration for the ancient 
Church was again evoked, that the progress of Protestantism in 
Italy was stayed, and that the wavering were held firm in their 
allegiance to the Papacy and many who had already been led away 
by the Protestant heresy were brought back to the ancient fold. 

708. The Inquisition. — The Catholic Church, having purified 
itself and defined clearly its articles of faith, demanded of all 
a more implicit obedience than hitherto. The Inquisition now 
assumed new vigor and activity, and heresy was sternly dealt 
with. The tribunal was assisted in the execution of its sentences 
by the secular authorities in all the Romance countries, but 
outside of these it was not generally recognized by the temporal 
princes, though it did succeed in establishing itself for a time in 
the Netherlands and in some parts of Germany. Death, usually 
by burning, and loss of property were the penalty of obstinate 



THE SOCIETY OF THE JESUITS 



507 



heresy. Without doubt the Inquisition did much to check the 
advance of the Reformation in Southern Europe, aiding especially 
in holding Italy and Spain obedient to the ancient Church. 

At this point, in connection with the persecutions of the Inquisi- 
tion, we should not fail to recall that in the sixteenth century a 
refusal to conform to the established worship was regarded by the 
great majority of Protestants, as well as of Catholics, as a species 
of treason against society, and was dealt with accordingly. Thus 
at Geneva we find Calvin bending all his energies to the trial and 
execution of Servetus, because 
he published views that the Cal- 
vinists thought heretical ; and 
in England we see the Anglican 
Protestants waging the most 
cruel, bitter, and persistent per- 
secutions not only against the 
Catholics but also against all 
Protestants who refused to con- 
form to the Established Church. 
J\\ 7°9- The Society of the 
'Jesuits; Ignatius of Loyola; 
Francis Xavier. — The Society 
of the Jesuits, or the Company 
of Jesus, was another most 
powerful auxiliary concerned in the reestablishment of the threat- 
ened authority of the papal see. The founder of the fraternity 
was Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), a native of Spain. Ignatius 
was the embodiment of Spanish religious zeal. His object was to 
form a society the devotion and energy of whose members should 
meet the ardor and activity of the reformers. The new society 
was instituted by a papal bull in 1540. 

Ignatius before he became a priest was a soldier, and it was 
this circumstance which lent a military cast to his society. Like 
the soldier, each member of the society is required to submit 
his own will to that of his superior, and is taught to regard self- 
renunciation and obedience as cardinal virtues. 




Fig. 130. — Ignatius of Loyola 
(After a painting by Rubens) 



508 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION 

It was particularly as educators that the Jesuits made their influ- 
ence felt upon society. Their aim here was to fill the world with 
schools and colleges, just as a conquered country might be occu- 
pied with military garrisons. Ignatius left behind him a full hun- 
dred colleges and seminaries ; within a century and a half after his 
death the order had founded over seven hundred. 

As the well-disciplined, watchful, and uncompromising foes of 
the Protestants, now divided into many and often hostile sects, 
the Jesuits did so much to bring about a reaction that Macaulay 
declares, " The history of the Jesuits is the history of the Catholic 
Reaction." It was largely through their direct or indirect agency 
that Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, and South Germany, after they 
had been invaded by Protestantism and in a greater or less 
degree drawn away from the old faith, were won back to the 
Catholic Church and again bound by stronger ties than ever to 
the Papacy. By the end of the sixteenth century this great work 
of recovery had been in the main accomplished. This regaining 
of these debatable countries for Catholicism constitutes one of 
the most important matters in the religious history of Europe. 

And not only did the labors of the Jesuits contribute thus 
greatly to the retrieving of the papal fortunes in Europe, but they 
were also instrumental in extending the authority and spreading 
the doctrines of the Catholic Church into all other parts of the 
world. Most distinguished of all the missionaries of the society 
to pagan lands was the saintly Francis Xavier (1506-15 5 2), 
known as the "Apostle of the Indies." His charity was meas- 
ureless. He thought that he should be as ready to face danger 
in quest of souls as others were in quest of " aromatic groves and 
mines of gold." His labors in India, Japan, and other lands of the 
Far East were attended with astonishing results. 

710. Spain's Zealous Championship of Catholicism. —Just as 
England became the champion and the bulwark of Protestantism, 
so did Spain become the champion and the bulwark of Catholi- 
cism. The Spanish sovereigns, as we shall see, constituted them- 
selves the guardians of Catholic orthodoxy, and put forth all their 
strength to uproot the reformed faith not only in their own domains 



THE HUNDRED YEARS OF RELIGIOUS WARS 509 

but also in other lands. Their strenuous efforts to reestablish the 
old religious unity caused them to become most important instru- 
ments of the Catholic Restoration. 

711. The Hundred Years of Religious Wars. — The action taken 
by the Council of Trent made impossible a reconciliation between 
the two parties. The middle of the sixteenth century had not yet 
been reached before the increasing bitterness of their controversy 
led to an appeal to force. Then followed a hundred years of 
religious wars. During this time neither party laid aside the 
sword. The Schmalkaldic War in Germany between Charles V 
and the Protestant princes, the fierce struggle in the Nether- 
lands between Philip II of Spain and his revolted subjects, the 
Huguenot wars in France, the launching of the Spanish Armada 
against Protestant England, the Thirty Years' War in Germany, 
— all these were simply different acts of the long and terri- 
ble drama. 

In the chapters immediately following this we shall trace in 
broad outline the vicissitudes in the fortunes of the rival creeds 
in the leading European countries. To what we have here said 
concerning the beginnings of the Revolution we will in a closing 
paragraph add only a single word touching its general results. 

712. Outcome of the Revolt. — The outcome of the Protestant 
Revolution was, very broadly stated, the separation from the 
Catholic Church of North Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, 
England, and Scotland, along with parts of Switzerland and of 
the Netherlands, — in the main, nations of Teutonic race. The 
great Romance nations, namely, France, Spain, and Italy, together 
with South Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, and Ireland, 
adhered to the ancient Church, or, if for a period shaken in their 
loyalty, ultimately returned to their old allegiance. 

This severance by the northern nations of the bonds that for- 
merly united them to the ecclesiastical empire of Rome meant 
a transfer of their allegiance from the Church to the Bible. The 
decrees of popes and the decisions of Church councils were no 
longer to be regarded as having divine and binding force ; the 
Scriptures alone were to be held as possessing divine and infallible 



510 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION 

authority, and, theoretically, this rule and standard of faith and 
practice each individual was to interpret for himself. 

Thus one half of Western Christendom was lost to the Roman 
Church. Yet notwithstanding this loss, notwithstanding the earlier 
loss of the eastern part of Christendom (sec. 500), and notwith- 
standing the fact that its temporal power has been entirely taken 
from it, the Papacy still remains, as Macaulay says, " not a mere 
antique, but full of life and youthful vigour." The Pope is to-day 
the supreme head of a Church that, in the words of the brilliant 
writer just quoted, " was great and respected before Saxon had 
set foot on Britain, before the Frank had passed the Rhine, when 
Grecian eloquence still flourished in Antioch, when idols were still 
worshiped in the temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in 
undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, 
in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of 
London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's." 

Selections from the Sources. — First Principles of the Reformation 
(ed. by Wace and Buchheim). Read Luther's "Address to the Nobility of 
the German Nation." The address makes a vivid revelation, not only of 
the religious situation in Germany at this time, but also of the character 
of the man who here makes himself the spokesman of the German nation. 
Whitcomb, Literary Source-Book of the' Gertnan Renaissance. Transla- 
tions and Reprints, vol. ii, No. 6, " Period of the Early Reformation in Ger- 
many " ; and vol. iii, No. 3, " Period of the Later Reformation." Robinson, 
Readings in European History, vol. ii, chaps, xxiv-xxvi. 

Secondary Works. — Beard, C, Martin Luther and the Reformation in 
Germany (to 1 520). Rostlin, J., Life of Luther. Emerton, E., L>esiderius 
Erasmus. For a wider survey, from the Protestant point of view, of the 
reform movement: Fisher, G. P., The Reformation ; Hausser, L., The 
Period of the Reformation ; and Seebohm, F., The Era of the Protestant 
Revolution. For the history of the movement from the Catholic side: 
Spalding, M. J., The History of the Protestant Reformation ; and Alzog, 
Universal Church History, vol. iii, pp. 1-460. Henderson, E. F., A Short 
History of Germany, vol. i, chaps, x-xvi. JANSSEN, J., History of the Ger- 
man People at the Close of the Middle Ages, vols, iii and iv. The Cambridge 
Modern History, vol. i, chap, xix, and vol. ii, chaps, iv-viii. Whitcomb, M., 
A History of Modern Europe, pp. 33-64. ROBINSON, J. H., An Lntroductio7i 
to the History of Western Europe, chaps, xxv and xxvi. Froude, J. A., 
Lectures on the Council of Trent. Hughes, T., Loyola and the Educational 
System of the Jesuits. Symonds, J. A., The Catholic Reaction, vol. i. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. John Reuchlin. 2. Melanchthon. 3. Cal- 
vin and Servetus. 4. Carlo Borromeo. 5. Ignatius of Loyola. 



CHAPTER LVI 

THE ASCENDANCY OF SPAIN; HER RELATION TO THE 
CATHOLIC REACTION 



I. Reign of the Emperor Charles V (15 19-1556) 

713. Charles' Dominions. — In the year 1500 there was born in 
the city of Ghent, in the Netherlands, a prince who was destined 
to play a great part in the history of the sixteenth century. This 
was Charles, son of Philip the Handsome, Archduke of Austria, 
and Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand 
and Isabella of Spain, — later to be 
known to fame as Emperor Charles V. 

Charles was "the converging 
point and heir of four great royal 
lines, which had become united by 
a series of happy matrimonial alli- 
ances." These were the houses of 
Austria, Burgundy, Castile, and 
Aragon. Before Charles had com- 
pleted his nineteenth year there were 
heaped upon his head, through the 
removal by death of his ancestors, 
the crowns of the four dynasties. 

But great as was the number of 
the hereditary crowns of the young 
prince, there was straightway added 
to them (in 15 19), by the vote of the Electors of Germany, the 
crown of the Holy Roman Empire. After this election he was 
known as Emperor Charles V ; hitherto he had borne the title of 
Carlos I of Spain. 

714. The Balance of Power is disturbed by Spain. — During a 
great part of the modern age a doctrine known as the balance of 

5 11 




Fig. 131. — Emperor 

Charles V 

(After a painting by Holbein) 



512 THE ASCENDANCY OF SPAIN 

power has lain at the bottom of much European diplomacy. It 
has been the concern of statesmen to see to it that no one of the 
nations should acquire an overweight of power or influence, and 
thereby endanger the independence of the others. But in spite 
of this vigilance there has been a constant tendency to a disturb- 
ance of the equilibrium of the European system of states through 
the overgrowth of this or that member of it. Thus in the seven- 
teenth century France under Louis XIV, and then again in the 
early years of the nineteenth century under Napoleon, acquired 
such an ascendancy as to imperil the liberties of the continent. 
The alliances formed and wars fought to prevent such disturb- 
ances of the balance of power or to restore the equilibrium 
already impaired, make up a great part of the political history of 
Europe in modern times. 

Now in the sixteenth century it was the overshadowing great- 
ness of Spain that aroused the fears of her neighbors and very 
largely determined the policies and actions of these states. Here 
we have the key to much of the political history of the reign of 
the Emperor Charles V and of that of his son and successor on 
the Spanish throne, Philip II. 

715. Charles and the Reformation. — But important as is the 
political side of Charles' reign, it is his relation to the Lutheran 
movement which constitutes for us the significant feature of his 
life and work. Fortunately for the Catholic Church, the young 
Emperor placed himself at the head of the Catholic party, and 
not only during his own reign employed the strength and resources 
of his empire in extirpating the heresy of the reformers, but also 
transmitted this policy to his successors upon the Spanish throne. 

716. His Two Chief Enemies. — Had Charles been free from 
the outset to devote all his energies to the work of suppressing the 
Lutheran heresy, it is difficult to see what could have saved the 
reform doctrines within his dominions from extirpation. But, 
fortunately for the cause of the reformers, Charles' attention, 
during all the first part of his reign, was drawn away from the 
serious consideration of Church questions by the attacks upon his 
dominions of two of the most powerful monarchs of the times, — 



WARS BETWEEN CHARLES AND FRANCIS 513 

Francis I (15 15-1547) of France, and Solyman the Magnificent 
(15 20-1566), Sultan of Turkey. Time and again, when Charles 
was inclined to proceed to severe measures against the Protestant 
princes of Germany, the threatening movements of one or both 
of these enemies, at times acting in concert and alliance, forced 
him to postpone his proposed crusade against heretics for a 
campaign against foreign foes. 

717. Rivalry and Wars between Charles and Francis (1521- 
1544). — Francis I was the rival of Charles in the contest for the 
imperial dignity. When the Electors of Germany conferred the 
title upon the Spanish monarch, Francis was sorely disappointed, 
and during all the remainder of his reign kept up a jealous and 
almost incessant warfare with Charles, whose enormous posses- 
sions now nearly surrounded the French kingdom. 1 Italy was the 
field of much of the fighting, as the securing of dominion in that 
peninsula was a chief aim of each of the rivals. 

718. Results of the Wars between Francis and Charles. — The 
direct and indirect consequences of the protracted combat between 
Francis and Charles were many and far-reaching. 

First, Protestantism was given time to intrench itself so firmly 
in North Germany and in other countries as to render ineffectual 
all later efforts for its destruction. 

Second, by preventing united action on the part of the Christian 
princes, these quarrels were the occasion of the severe losses 
which Christendom during this period suffered at the hands of the 
Ottoman Turks. Hungary was ravaged with fire and sword, 
Rhodes was captured, and the Mediterranean made almost a 
Turkish lake. 

l Before entering upon war with Charles, Francis cast about for an ally. The 
young king of England, Henry VIII, seemed the most desirable friend. He accord- 
ingly invited Henry to a conference in France, at which was to be considered the 
matter of an alliance against the Emperor. The two kings, each attended by a 
magnificent train of courtiers, met near Calais (1520). The meeting is known in his- 
tory as " The Field of the Cloth of Gold," because of the prodigal richness of the 
costumes and appointments of the chiefs and their attendants. " Many," says a 
contemporary writer, " bore thither their mills, their forests, and their meadows on 
their backs." Nothing came of the interview, and Charles finally won Henry over to 
his side. 



5 14 THE ASCENDANCY OF SPAIN 

Third, these wars, having Italy as their chief theater, were 
a frightful scourge to that land and blighted there all the fair 
promises of the Renaissance ; but at the same time the storm 
wafted the precious seeds of the revived arts and letters beyond the 
mountains into France and other northern lands. The French 
Renaissance dates from these Italian wars. 

719. Persecution of the Waldenses by Francis (1545). — The 
cessation of the wars between Francis and Charles left each free 
to give his attention to his heretical subjects. And both had work 
enough on hand ; for while the king and the Emperor had been 
fighting each other, the doctrines of the reformers had been 
spreading rapidly in all directions and among all classes. 

The severest blow dealt the heretics of his kingdom by Francis 
fell upon the Vaudois, or Waldenses, the inhabitants of a num- 
ber of hamlets in the Alpine regions of Piedmont and Provence. 
These people during the later mediaeval time had fallen into what 
the Church regarded as heretical ways, and just now they were 
mingling with their own heresies those of the Protestant reformers. 
Thousands were put to death by the sword, and thousands more 
were burned at the stake. At a later time other persecutions fell 
upon them, until finally only a miserable remnant, who found an 
asylum among the mountains, were left to hand down their faith 
to modern times. 

720. Charles' Wars with the Protestant German Princes. — 
Charles, on his part, turned his attention to the reformers in Ger- 
many. Inspired by religious motives and convictions, and appre- 
hensive, further, of the effect upon his authority in Germany of 
the growth there of such an empire within an empire as the 
Protestant princes and free cities — now united in a union known 
as the Schmalkaldic League — were becoming, he resolved to 
crush the reform movement by force. 

Accordingly, in the very year that Luther died (1546), the 
Emperor, aided by the German Catholics, attacked the Protestant 
league. He was at first successful, but in the end the war proved 
the most disastrous and humiliating to him of any in which he 
had engaged. Severe defeats of his armies finally constrained him 



THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF AUGSBURG 515 

to give up his undertaking to make all his German subjects think 
alike in matters of religion. 

721. The Religious Peace of Augsburg (1555). — In the cele- 
brated Diet of Augsburg, convened in 1555 to compose the dis- 
tracted affairs of the German states, it was arranged and agreed 
that every prince should be allowed to choose between the Cath- 
olic religion and the Augsburg Confession, 2 and should have the 
right to make his religion the religion of his people. 

To this article, however, the Diet made one important excep- 
tion. The Catholics insisted that ecclesiastical princes, i.e. bishops 
and abbots, on becoming Protestants, should give up their offices 
and revenues ; and this important clause, under the name of the 
Ecclesiastical Reservation, was finally made a part of the treaty. 

It is important that this Treaty of Augsburg should be kept 
carefully in mind, for the reason that it was through violations of 
its articles by both parties that the way was paved for the terrible 
Thirty Years' War (Chapter LX). 

722. His Abdication. — -While the Diet of Augsburg was arrang- 
ing the religious peace the Emperor Charles was enacting the part 
of a second Diocletian. There had long been forming in his mind 
the purpose of spending his last days in monastic seclusion. The 
disappointing issue of his contest with the Protestant princes of 
Germany, the weight of advancing years, together with menacing 
troubles which began "to thicken like dark clouds about the 
evening of his reign," now led the Emperor to carry this resolu- 
tion into effect. Accordingly he abdicated in favor of his son 
Philip the crown of the Netherlands (1555), and that of Spain 
and its colonies (1556), and then retired to the monastery of 
Yuste, situated in a secluded region in Western Spain. 

There is a tradition which tells how Charles, after vainly en- 
deavoring to make some clocks that he had about him at Yuste 
run together, made the following reflection : " How foolish I have 



2 The Augsburg Confession was the formula of belief of the adherents of 
Luther. It was drawn up by the scholar Melanchthon and laid before the Imperial 
Diet assembled at Augsburg by Charles V in 1530. It formed the basis of the 
Lutheran Church. 



$l6 THE ASCENDANCY OF SPAIN 

been to think I could make all men believe alike about religion, 
when here I cannot make even two clocks keep the same time." 
This story is probably mythical. Charles seems never to have 
doubted either the practicability or the policy of securing uni- 
formity of belief by force. While in retirement at Yuste he 
expressed the deepest regret that he did not burn Luther at 
Worms. He was constantly urging Philip to use greater severity 
in dealing with his heretic subjects. 

II. Spain under Philip II (1556-1598) 

723. Philip's Character and his Principles of Government. — 

Philip, unlike his father, was a representative Spaniard. He em- 
bodied in himself the traits, ideals, and aspirations of the Spanish 
race, just as Luther typified and embodied those of the German 
race. His mind was the mind, his conscience was the conscience, 
of the Spanish people. Like the true Spaniard, Philip possessed 
a deeply religious nature. One of his instruments of government 
was the Inquisition. He employed it in the suppression of heresy, 
not simply because he was a sincere Catholic and believed that 
heresy was willful sin and should be sternly dealt with, but also 
because heresy, in his view, was rebellion against the state. 

Philip possessed unusual administrative ability. He was an 
incessant worker and busied himself with the endless details of 
government. He did everything himself. His secretaries were 
mere clerks. He even regulated, or tried to regulate, the pri- 
vate affairs of his subjects, — told them how to dress, when they 
might use carriages, and how and where to educate their chil- 
dren. Under this system there was in the kingdom but one brain 
to plan and one will to direct. All local freedom and all individ- 
ual enterprise were crushed out. This fatally centralized system 
of absolute government Philip bequeathed to his successors, and 
thus contributed greatly to determine the unhappy destiny of 
the Spanish people. 

As the most important matters of Philip's reign — namely, 
his war against the revolted Netherlands and his attempt upon 



PHILIP'S CRUSADE AGAINST THE MORISCOS 517 

England with his " Invincible Armada " — belong properly to the 
respective histories of England and the Netherlands, and will 
be treated of in connection with the affairs of those countries, we 
shall give here very little space to the history of the period. 

724. Philip's Crusade against the Moriscos (1570-1571). — It 
will be recalled that upon the conquest of Granada in 1492 by Fer- 
dinand and Isabella, the Moors were assured protection in all civil 
rights and granted religious freedom. But the Emperor Charles V 
broke faith with them and compelled them to embrace Christian- 
ity. They submitted to baptism, and outwardly conformed to the re- 
quirements of the Church, but secretly they held to their own faith. 

Philip conceived it to be his duty to impose upon the Moriscos 
— thus they were called after their conversion — conditions that 
should thoroughly obliterate all traces of their ancient faith and 
manners. So he issued a decree that they should no longer wear 
their native garb or use their native tongue, and that they should 
give their children Christian names and send them to Christian 
schools. A determined revolt followed. 

The uprising was suppressed with cruel severity, and then, 
because there was danger that if left in these coast regions they 
might open the gates of the country to the Moslems of the Medi- 
terranean, an order was issued which condemned all the Moriscos 
of Granada to deportation to districts in the center and the north 
of the peninsula. The order was relentlessly carried out. 

725. Defeat of the Turkish Fleet at Lepanto (15 71). — Philip 
rendered at least one great service to Christian civilization at 
large. This he did by helping to stay the progress of the Otto- 
man Turks in the Mediterranean. They had captured the im- 
portant island of Cyprus and had assaulted the Hospitalers at 
Malta. All Christendom was becoming alarmed. An alliance was 
formed, embracing the Pope, the Venetians, and Philip II. An 
immense fleet was equipped and put under the command of Don 
John of Austria, Philip's half-brother. 

The Christian fleet met the Turkish squadron in the Gulf of 
Lepanto, on the western coast of Greece. The battle was unequaled 
by anything the Mediterranean had seen since the naval encounters 



5 18 THE ASCENDANCY OF SPAIN 

of the Romans and Carthaginians in the First Punic War. The 
Ottoman fleet was almost totally destroyed. Thousands of Chris- 
tian captives, who were found chained to the oars of the Turkish 
galleys, were liberated. All Christendom rejoiced as when Jeru- 
salem was captured by the first crusaders. 

The battle of Lepanto holds an important place in history, 
because it marks the turning point of the long struggle between 
the Mohammedans and Christians, which had now been going 
on for nearly one thousand years. The Ottoman Turks, though 
they afterwards made progress in some quarters, never recovered 
the prestige they lost in that disaster, and their power thence- 
forward steadily declined. 

726. The Death of Philip (1598). — In the year 1588 Philip 
made his memorable attempt with the so-called " Invincible 
Armada" upon England, at this time the stronghold of Prot- 
estantism. As we shall see a little later, he failed utterly in the 
undertaking. Ten years after this death ended his reign. 

727. Later Events: the Expulsion of the Moriscos (1 dog- 
id 10); Loss of the Netherlands. — From the death of Philip II 
Spain declined in power, reputation, and influence. This was 
due very largely to the bigotry and tyranny of her rulers. Thus 
under Philip III (1598— 162 1) a severe loss, one from which they 
never recovered, was inflicted upon the manufactures and other 
industries of the country by the expulsion of the Moriscos. 

Philip II, as just related, had deported the whole Morisco pop- 
ulation of Granada to inland provinces. Now all Spain was to be 
cleared absolutely of the " evil race." Philip really believed that 
this driving out of the misbelievers would be a service pleasing 
to God, even as was the driving out by the Hebrews of the 
Canaanites from Palestine. But he was actuated also by other 
motives in expelling the unhappy Moriscos. They were accused, 
and not without ground, so desperate had persecution rendered 
them, of plotting with their co-religionists for the invasion of Spain, 
and thus endangering the peace and unity of the land. 

Accordingly during the years 1609 and 16 10 all persons 
of Moorish descent — more than half a million of the most 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 519 

intelligent, skillful, and industrious inhabitants of the peninsula 
— were driven into exile, chiefly to North Africa. The empty 
dwellings and neglected fields .of once populous and gardenlike 
provinces told how fatal a blow Spain had inflicted upon herself. 
She had secured religious unity, — but at a great price. 

At the very moment that Spain was being so deeply wounded 
in the peninsula she received an incurable hurt in her outside 
possessions. In the Truce of 1609 (sec. 770) she was forced 
virtually to recognize the independence of the Protestant Neth- 
erlands, whose revolt against the tyranny of Philip II has been 
mentioned. In the secession of these provinces Spain lost her 
most valuable dependency, and now disappears as a power of 
the first rank from the stage of history. 

Even the very brief review which we have made of her sixteenth- 
century history will not fail to have revealed at least two of the main 
causes of her failure and quick decadence ; first, a false imperial 
policy in Europe which involved her in endless and fruitless wars ; 
and, second, political despotism and religious intolerance. 

Selections from the Sources. — Translations and Reprints, vol. iii, No. 3, 
"Period of the Later Reformation"; contains short selections bearing on 
several of the matters covered by this chapter. 

Secondary Works. — Robertson, W., History of the Reign of the Em- 
peror Charles the Fifth, 3 vols. Prescott, W. H., History of the Reign of 
Philip the Second, 3 vols. ; this and the preceding work by Robertson are 
reckoned among the classics' of historical literature. Armstrong, E., The 
Emperor Charles V, 2 vols. Stirling-Maxwell, W., The Cloister Life 
of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. Hume, M. A. S., The Spanish People, 
chaps, ix-xi; Spain: its Greatness and Decay ; and Philip II of Spain. Lea, 
H. C, The Moriscos of Spain: their Conversion and Expulsion. Stephens, 
H. Morse, Portugal, chap, xiii; for Portugal's "Sixty Years' Captivity" to 
Spain. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The Field of the Cloth of Gold. 2. Siege 
of Vienna by the Ottoman Turks (1529). 3. The sack of Rome in 1527. 
4. The Waldenses. 5. The Expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain. 



CHAPTER LVII 

THE TUDORS AND THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 
(1485-1603) 

I. Introductory 

728. The Tudor Period. — The Tudor period 1 was an eventful 
and stirring time for the English people. It witnessed among 
them great progress in art, science, and trade, and a literary out- 
burst such as the world had not seen since the best days of Athens. 
But the great event of the period was the Reformation. It was 
under the sovereigns of this house that England was severed from 
papal Rome and Protestantism became firmly established in the 
island. To tell how these things were effected will be our chief 
aim in the present chapter. 

729. The English Reformation first a Revolt and then a Re- 
form. — The Reformation in England was, more distinctly than 
elsewhere, a double movement. First, England was separated 
violently from the ecclesiastical empire of Rome, but without any 
essential change being made in creed or form of worship. This 
was accomplished under Henry VIII. Second, the English Church, 
thus rendered independent of Rome, gradually changed its teach- 
ings and ritual. This was effected chiefly under Edward VI. So 
the movement was first a revolt and then a reform. 

730. The Oxford Humanist Reformers. — The soil in England 
was, in a considerable measure, prepared for the seed of the 
Reformation by the labors of the humanists (sec. 671). Among 
them three men, Colet, Erasmus, and More, stand preeminent as 
promoters of the New Learning. 

John Colet (1466-1519) was leader and master of the little 
band. His generous enthusiasm was kindled in Italy. It was an 

1 The Tudor sovereigns were Henry VII (1485-1509), Henry VIII (1509-1547), 
Edward VI (1547-1553), Mary (1553—1558), and Elizabeth (1558-1603). 

520 



THE OXFORD HUMANIST REFORMERS 



521 



important event in the history of the Reformation when Colet 
crossed the Alps to learn Greek at the feet of the Greek exiles ; 
for on his return to England he brought back with him not 
only an increased love for the classical learning but a fervent zeal 
for religious reform, inspired, perhaps, by the stirring eloquence 
of Savonarola. 

Desiderius Erasmus (i467?-i536) of Rotterdam went to Eng- 
land to learn Greek. There he came into close friendship with 
Colet, More, and 
other lovers of learn- 
ing, with whom he 
declared he could 
have been happy in 
Scythia. He was the 
leader of the human- 
istic movement in 
the North, as Pe- 
trarch was the father 
of the movement in 
the South. His cele- 
brated satire entitled 
Morice Encomium, 
or " Praise of Folly " 
(1509), was directed 
against the foibles 
of all classes of so- 
ciety, but particu- 
larly against the sins 

of " unholy men in holy orders." A little later (in 15 16) Erasmus 
published his Novum Instrumentum, the Greek text of the New 
Testament with a Latin version. These publications must be given 
a prominent place among the. agencies which prepared the minds 
and hearts of the northern peoples for the Reformation. 

Thomas More (1478-1535) was declared by Colet to be the 
sole genius in all England. He was a man with whom men were 
said to "fall in love." As the author of Utopia he is, perhaps, 




Fig. 132. — Erasmus. (After 
Holbein) 



painting by 



522 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 

after Erasmus, the best known of all the humanists of the North. 
He was drawn, or rather forced, into political life, and of him 
and his writings we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, in 
connection with the reign of Henry VIII (sec. 743). 

Than this early Oxford movement, nothing better illustrates 
the relation of the humanistic revival in the North to the religious 
reform. Here the humanist was the reformer. But the Oxford 
reformers, it should be carefully noted, were not Protestant reform- 
ers. They believed in the divine character of the papal supremacy. 
They wished indeed to reform the Papacy, but not to destroy it. 
They did not wish to see the mediaeval unity of Christendom 
broken. They had no quarrel with the creed of the Catholic 
Church. Erasmus denounced the doctrines of Luther, and More 
died a martyr's death rather than deny the papal supremacy. 

II. The Reign of Henry VII (1485-1509) 

731. Benevolences. — The besetting sins of Henry VII, the first 
of the Tudors, were avarice and a love of despotic rule. One 
device adopted by the king for wringing money from his wealthy 
subjects was what were euphemistically termed " Benevolences." 
Magna Carta forbade the king to impose taxes without the con- 
sent of the Common Council. But Henry did not like to convene 
Parliament, as he wished to rule like the kings of the Continent, 
guided simply by his own free will. So benevolences were made 
to take the place of regular taxes. These were nothing more nor 
less than gifts extorted from the well-to-do by moral pressure. 

One of Henry's ministers, Cardinal Morton, was particularly 
successful in his appeals for gifts of this kind. To those who 
lived splendidly he would say that it was very evident they were 
quite able to make a generous donation to their sovereign ; while to 
others who lived in a narrow and pinched way he would represent 
that their economical mode of life must have made them wealthy. 
This teasing dilemma received the name of " Morton's fork." 

732. Maritime Discoveries. — It was during this reign that 
great geographical discoveries enlarged the boundaries of the 



CARDINAL WOLSEY 523 

world. Soon after Columbus had announced to Europe the exist- 
ence of land to the west, Henry commissioned John Cabot, a 
Venetian navigator doing business in England, and his sons to 
make explorations in the western seas. In his westward voyage 
Cabot ran against the American continent somewhere in the 
vicinity of Newfoundland, and took possession of the country 
in the name of the English sovereign (1497). Upon this discov- 
ery and other alleged explorations of John Cabot and his son 
Sebastian the English based their claim to the whole of the Amer- 
ican coast from Labrador down to Florida. This claim included 
the best part of North America, — what was destined to be the 
third and most spacious home of the Anglo-Saxon race. 

III. England severed from the Papacy by 
Henry VIII (1509-1547) 

733. Cardinal Wolsey. — Henry VII died in 1509, leaving the 
throne to his son Henry, an energetic and headstrong youth of 
eighteen years. We must here at the opening of the young king's 
reign 2 introduce his greatest minister, Thomas Wolsey (1475?- 
1530). This man was one of the most remarkable characters of 
his generation, — "probably the greatest political genius," says 
Bishop Creighton, "whom England has ever produced." He was, 
as Holinshed characterizes him, "very eloquent and full of wit; 
but passingly ambitious." Henry made him Archbishop of York 
and Lord Chancellor of the realm ; the Pope made him a cardi- 
nal, and afterwards papal legate in England. He was now virtu- 
ally at the head of affairs in both State and Church. 

734. Henry as " Defender of the Faith." — It was in the eighth 
year of Henry VIII's reign that Martin Luther tacked upon the 

2 In 1512, joining what was known as the Holy League, — a union against the 
French king, of which the Pope was the head, — Henry made his first campaign in 
France. While Henry was across the Channel, James IV of Scotland thought to 
give aid to the French king by invading England. The Scottish army was met by 
the English force at Flodden, beneath the Cheviot Hills, and completely overwhelmed 
(15 13). King James was killed, and the flower of the Scottish nobility was left dead 
upon the field. It was the most terrible disaster that had ever befallen the Scottish 
nation. Scott's poem Marmion, a Tale of Flodden Field, commemorates the battle. 



524 



THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 



door of the Wittenberg church his famous ninety-five theses. 
England was stirred with the rest of Western Christendom. 
When, a little later, Luther attacked directly the papal power, 
Henry wrote a La tin v treatise refuting the arguments of the auda- 
cious monk. The Pope, Leo X, rewarded Henry's Catholic zeal 
by conferring upon him the title of "Defender of the Faith" 
(152 1). This title was retained by Henry after the secession of 




Fig. 133. — Henry VIII. (After a painting by Holbein) 



England from the papal see, and is borne by his latest successor 
to-day, although he is "defender" of quite a different faith from 
that in the defense of which Henry first earned the title. 

735. Henry seeks a Divorce from Catherine. — We have now to 
relate some circumstances which very soon changed Henry from 
a zealous supporter of the Papacy into a bitter enemy. Henry's 
marriage — he married Catherine of Aragon, the widow of his 
brother Arthur — had been prompted by policy and not by love. 



THE FALL OF WOLSEY 525 

Of the five children born of the union, all had died save a sickly 
daughter named Mary. In these successive afflictions Henry saw 
or feigned to see a sign of Heaven's displeasure because he had 
taken to wife the widow of his brother. 

And now a new circumstance arose, if it had not existed for 
some time previous to this. Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn, 
a beautiful and vivacious maid of honor in the queen's household. 
This new affection so quickened the king's conscience that he 
soon became fully convinced that it was his duty to put Catherine 
aside. Accordingly Henry asked the Pope, Clement VII, to grant 
him a divorce. Clement gave no immediate decision, but. after 
about two years' delay ordered Henry and Catherine both to 
appear before him at Rome. 

736. The Fall of Wolsey ; his Death (1530). — Henry's pa- 
tience was now completely exhausted. Becoming persuaded that 
Wolsey was not exerting himself as he might to secure the divorce, 
he banished him from court. The hatred of Anne Boleyn and of 
others pursued the fallen minister. Finally he was arrested on 
the preposterous charge of high treason. While on his way to 
London the unhappy minister, broken in spirit and in health, was 
prostrated by a fatal fever. As he lay dying in the arms of the 
kind monks of Leicester Abbey, he uttered these self-censuring 
words : " Had I served my God as diligently as I have served 
my king, He would not have given me over in my gray hairs." 

Wolsey had indeed sunk his priestly office in that of the states- 
man, and as a statesman he had often stifled the scruples of con- 
science in obedience to the king's unholy wishes and commands. 

737. Thomas Cromwell. — After the disgrace of Wolsey an 
attendant of his named Thomas Cromwell rapidly assumed in 
Henry's regard the place from which the cardinal had fallen. 
For the space of ten years this strong but unscrupulous man 
shaped the policy of Henry's government. The period during 
which his power was supreme has been called the English Reign 
of Terror. The executioner's ax was often wet with the blood of 
those who stood in his way, or who in any manner incurred his 
or the king's displeasure. 



526 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 

It was to the bold suggestions of this man that Henry now lis- 
tened. Cromwell's advice to the king was to waste no more time 
in negotiating with the Pope, but at once to renounce his jurisdic- 
tion, proclaim himself supreme head of the Church in England, 
and then get a decree of divorce from his own courts. 

738. First Acts in the Breach with Rome (1533-1534). — 
The advice of Cromwell was acted upon, and by a series of steps 
England was swiftly carried out from under the authority of the 
Roman see. Henry first virtually cut the Gordian knot by a 
secret marriage with Anne Boleyn, notwithstanding a papal decree 
threatening him with excommunication should he dare to do so. 
Thomas Cranmer, a friend whom Henry had made Archbishop 
of Canterbury, now formed a court, tried the case, and of course 
declared the king's marriage with Catherine null and void. 

The following year (1534) Henry procured from Parliament the 
passage of the important Act of Annates, which forbade abso- 
lutely the payment to Rome of the first fruits of archbishoprics 
and bishoprics, and ordered that these should henceforth be paid 
to the English crown. 

739. The Act of Supremacy (1534). — At Rome the acts of 
Henry and his Parliament were denounced as acts of impious 
usurpation. The Pope issued a bull excommunicating Henry and 
relieving his subjects from their allegiance. 

Henry now took the final and decisive step. He got from Par- 
liament the celebrated Act of Supremacy (1534). This statute 
made Henry " the only Supreme Head in earth of the Church 
of England," vesting in him absolute control of its offices and 
affairs and turning into his hands the revenue which had hitherto 
flowed into Rome's treasury. A denial of the title given the king 
by the statute was made high treason. 

Such a break with the past met of course with much disapproval, 
and many persons were put to death under the statute. The most 
illustrious victims of this tyranny were John Fisher, Bishop of 
Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, who for several years was one 
of Henry's chief councilors. The execution of Thomas More par- 
ticularly created widespread condemnation and dismay. Erasmus 



THE SUPPRESSION OF THE MONASTERIES 527 

wrote to a friend, " What a man has England and what a friend 
have I lost ! " 

740. The Suppression of the Monasteries (1536-1539). — The 
suppression of the monasteries was one of Henry's early acts as 
the supreme head of the Church in England. He resolved upon 
their destruction because, in the first place, he coveted their 
wealth, which at this time included probably one fifth of the 
lands of the realm. Further, the monks were openly or secretly 
opposed to Henry's claims of supremacy in religious matters ; 
and this naturally caused him to regard them with jealousy and 
disfavor. 

In order to make the act of suppression appear as reasonable 
as possible, it was planned to make the charge of immorality its 
ostensible ground. Accordingly two royal commissioners were 
appointed to inspect the monasteries and make a report upon 
what they might see and learn. If we may believe the report, 
some of the smaller houses were conducted in a most shameful 
manner. The larger houses, however, were fairly free from faults. 
Many of them served as schools, hospitals, and inns, and all 
distributed alms to the poor who knocked at their gates. 

But the undoubted usefulness and irreproachable character of 
these larger foundations did not avail to avert ruin from them also. 
During the years from 1537 to 1539 all were dissolved, their pos- 
sessors generally surrendering the property voluntarily into the 
hands of the king lest a worse thing than the loss of their houses 
should come upon them. Altogether there were six hundred and 
forty-five monasteries broken up. The monastic buildings were 
generally dismantled, every scrap of iron or lead being torn from 
them, and their unprotected walls left to sink into picturesque 
ivy-clad ruins. 

A portion of the vast wealth which came into Henry's hands 
through all these confiscations was used in founding schools and 
colleges and for other public purposes ; but by far the greater 
portion of the landed property was sold at merely nominal prices 
or given outright to the favorites of the king. Many of the lead- 
ing English families of to-day trace the titles of their estates from 



528 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 

these confiscated lands of the religious houses. Thus a new aris- 
tocracy was raised up whose interests led them to oppose any 
return to Rome ; for in such an event their estates were liable, 
of course, to be restored to the monasteries. 

741. Act to secure Uniformity of Belief (1539). — In the same 
year that Parliament gave into Henry's hands the last of the prop- 
erty of the monastic orders, it passed a bill called an Act for 
abolishing Diversity of Opinions. By this statute the teachings 
of the old Church respecting the real presence in the Eucharist, 
the celibacy of the priesthood, confession to a priest, and other 
tenets were approved as agreeable to the laws of God, and it was 
made a crime for any person to hold, to teach, or to practice 
opinions opposed to any of these dogmas. 

What the Church in England should be called under Henry it 
would be hard to say. It was not Protestant ; and it was just as 
far from being truly Catholic. That it was distinctively neither the 
one nor the other is shown by the character of the persecutions 
that took place. Catholics and Protestants alike were harassed 
and put to death. Thus on one occasion three Catholics who 
denied that the king was the rightful head of the Church and 
three Protestants who disputed the doctrine of the real presence 
in the Eucharist were dragged on the same sled to the place of 
execution. 

742. Henry's Death and Character; his Work. — Henry died 
in 1547. Very diverse views of his character have been held. 
He was admittedly meddlesome, cruel, arbitrary, and selfish. 
Even if the English people are indebted to him for their national 
independent Church, still they owe him for this no gratitude ; 
for what he did here proceeded primarily from the most ignoble 
impulses and motives. 

In another sphere, however, Henry accomplished a work which 
entitles him to the grateful remembrance of a people who pride 
themselves on their mastery of the sea. He had the vision to dis- 
cern that England's dominion must be sought not on the Euro- 
pean Continent but on the ocean. Hence he took a deep interest 
in naval affairs. At a time when the Continental sovereigns were 



LITERATURE UNDER HENRY VIII 529 

creating standing armies, he, as it has been put, created for Eng- 
land a "standing navy." He brought to perfection the sailing 
warship and gave it precedence over the oared vessel, which up 
to this time had held the chief place in the world's war navies. 
Thus under Henry the English navy, in the words of an eminent 
naval authority, "was becoming an entirely new thing, a thing 
the world had never seen before." The change was somewhat like 
that effected when the steamship replaced the sailing vessel. 

743. Literature under Henry VIII ; More's Utopia. — The most 
prominent literary figure of this period is Sir Thomas More. The 
work upon which his fame as a writer mainly rests is his Utopia, 
or "Nowhere," a romance like Plato's Republic or Sir Philip 
Sidney's Arcadia. It pictures an imaginary kingdom away on an 
island in the New World, then just discovered, where the laws, 
manners, and customs of the people were represented as being 
ideally perfect. It was the wretchedness of the lower classes, the 
religious intolerance, the despotic government of the times which 
inspired the Utopia. " No such cry of pity for the poor," says 
Green, "had been heard since the days of Piers Plowman." 
But More's was not simply such a cry of despair as was that of 
Langland. He saw a better future ; and with a view of reforming 
them, pointed out the existing evils in society. He did this by 
telling how things were in " Nowhere," — how the houses and 
grounds were all inviting, the streets broad and clean ; how every- 
body was taught to read and write, and no one obliged to work 
more than six hours a day ; how drinking houses, brawls, and 
wars were unknown ; how in this happy republic every person 
had a part in the government, and was allowed to follow what 
religion he chose. 

In this wise way More suggested improvements in social, polit- 
ical, and religious matters. He did not expect, however, that 
Henry would follow all his suggestions, for he closes his account 
of the Utopians with this admission : " I confess that many things 
in the commonwealth of Utopia I rather wish than hope to see 
adopted in our own." 



530 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 

IV. Changes in Doctrine and Ritual under 
Edward VI (1547-1553) 

744. Changes in the Religion. — In accordance with the pro- 
visions of a Succession Act passed in Henry's reign, his only son, 
Edward, succeeded him. The young king was carefully taught 
the doctrines of the reformers, and many changes were made 
in the creed and service of the English Church, which carried it 
farther away from the Church of Rome. It is these changes in the 
religion that constitute the matters most worthy of our attention. 

Under the new regime all pictures and crosses were cleared 
from the churches ; the use of tapers, holy water, and incense 
was discontinued ; the veneration of the Virgin and the keeping 
of saints' days were prohibited ; belief in purgatory was denounced, 
and prayers for the dead were interdicted ; the real or bodily pres- 
ence of Christ in the bread and wine of the sacrament was denied ; 
the prohibition against the marriage of the clergy was annulled ; 
and the services of the Church, which hitherto — save as to some 
portion of them during the last three years of Henry's reign — 
had been conducted in Latin, were ordered to be said in the 
language of the people. 

In order that the provision last mentioned might be effectually 
carried out, the English Book of Common Prayer was prepared 
by Archbishop Cranmer. This book, which was in the main simply 
a translation of the old Latin Missal and Breviary, with the sub- 
sequent change of a word here and a passage there to keep it in 
accord with the growing new doctrines, is the same that is used 
in the Anglican Church at the present time. 

In 1552 were published the famous Forty- two Articles of Reli- 
gion, which formed a compendious creed of the reformed faith. 
These articles, reduced finally to thirty-nine, form the present 
standard of faith and doctrine in the Church of England. 

745. Persecutions to secure Uniformity. — These sweeping 
changes and innovations in the old creed and in the services of 
the Church would have worked little hardship or wrong had only 
everybody, as in More's happy republic, been left free to favor 



ACCESSION OF MARY 53 1 

and follow what religion he would. But unfortunately it was only 
away in " Nowhere " that men were allowed perfect freedom of 
conscience and worship. The idea of toleration had not yet dawned 
upon the world, save in the happier moments of some such gen- 
erous and wide-horizoned soul as his that conceived the Utopia. 

By royal edict all preachers and teachers were forced to sign 
the Forty-two Articles ; and severe laws, known as Acts for the 
Uniformity of Service, punished with severe penalties any de- 
parture from the forms of the new prayer book. Many persons 
during the reign were imprisoned for refusing to conform to the 
new worship ; while two at least were given to the flames as 
"heretics and contemners of the Book of Common Prayer." 
Even the Princess Mary, who remained a conscientious adherent 
of the old faith, was harassed and persecuted because she would 
have the Catholic service in her own private chapel. 

V. Reaction under Mary (1553-1558) 

746. Accession of Mary; Reconciliation with Rome (1554). — 
Upon the death of Edward his sister Mary came to the throne. 
Soon after her accession she was married to Philip II of Spain. 
This marriage had been planned by Philip's father, the Emperor 
Charles V, in the hope that thereby England might become 
actually or in effect a part of the Spanish empire. 

The majority of the English prelates had never in their hearts 
approved the recent ecclesiastical changes. Their zeal for the 
ancient Church, allied with Mary's, now quickly brought about 
the full reestablishment of the Catholic worship throughout the 
realm. Parliament voted that the nation should return to its 
obedience to the papal see ; and then the members of both 
Houses fell upon their knees to receive at the hands of the 
papal legate absolution from the sin of heresy and schism. The 
sincerity of their repentance was attested by their repeal of all 
the acts by which the new worship had been set up in the land. 
The joy at Rome was unbounded. The prodigal had returned 
to his father's house. 



532 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 

But not quite everything done by the reformers was undone. 
Parliament refused to restore the confiscated Church lands, which 
was very natural, as much of this property was now in the hands 
of the lords and commoners. Mary, however, in her zeal for 
the ancient faith, restored a great part of the property still in 
the possession of the crown, and refounded many of the ruined 
monasteries and abbeys. 

747. The Martyrs: Latimer and Ridley (1555), and Cranmer 
(1556). — With the reestablishment of the Catholic worship, the 
Protestants in their turn were subjected to persecution. Alto- 
gether, between two and three hundred persons suffered death 
during this reign on account of their religion. The three most 
eminent martyrs were Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer. Latimer 
and Ridley were burned at the same stake. As the torch was 
applied to the fagots, the aged Latimer — he was seventy years 
old — encouraged his companion with these memorable words: 
" Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man ; we shall 
this day, by God's grace, light such a candle in England as I 
trust shall never be put out." 

Mary should not be judged harshly for the part she took in the 
persecutions that disfigured her reign. It was not her fault, but 
the fault of the age, that these things were done. Punishment of 
heresy was then regarded, by almost all Catholics and Protestants 
alike, as a duty which could be neglected by those in authority 
only at the peril of Heaven's displeasure. 

VI. Final Establishment of Protestantism under 
Elizabeth (1 558-1603) 

748. The Queen. — Elizabeth, who was twenty-five years of age 
when the death of Mary called her to the throne, was the daughter 
of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She seems to have inherited 
the characteristics of both parents ; hence perhaps the inconsist- 
encies of her disposition. She possessed a masculine intellect, a 
strong will, admirable judgment, and great political tact. It was 
these qualities which rendered her reign the strongest and most 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 



533 



illustrious in the record of England's sovereigns, and raised the 
nation from a position of comparative insignificance to a foremost 
place among the states of Europe. 

Elizabeth never married, notwithstanding Parliament was con- 
stantly urging her to do so, and suitors, among whom was 
Philip II of Spain, 
were as numerous 
as those who sought 
the hand of Pene- 
lope. She declared 
— very late in her 
reign, however — 
that on her corona- 
tion day she was 
married to the Eng- 
lish realm, and that 
she would have no 
other husband. She 
remained to the end 
the "fair Vestal 
throned by the 
West." 

749. Her Minis- 
ters. — One secret 
of the strength and 
popularity of Eliza- 
be t h ' s government 
was the admirable 
judgment she exer- 
cised in her choice 
of advisers. The 
courtiers with whom she crowded her receptions might be friv- 
olous persons ; but about her council board she gathered the wisest 
men of the realm. And yet Elizabeth's government was really her 
own. We now know that her advisers did not have as much to do 
with shaping the policies of the reign as was formerly believed. 




Fig. 134. — Queen Elizabeth. (The Ermine 
Portrait, from the collection of the Marquis 
of Salisbury, Hatfield House) 



534 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 

The most eminent of the queen's ministers was Sir William 
Cecil (Lord Burghley), a man of great sagacity and ceaseless 
industry. He stood at the head of the queen's council for forty 
years. His son Robert, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and Sir Francis 
VValsingham were also prominent among the queen's advisers. 

750. Reestablishment of the Reformed Church. — As Mary 
undid the work in religion of Henry and Edward, so now her 
work was undone by Elizabeth. Elizabeth favored the reformed 
faith rather from policy than from conviction. It was to the 
Protestants alone that she could look for support ; her title to the 
crown was denied by every true Catholic in the realm, for she was 
the child of that marriage which the Pope had forbidden under 
pain of the penalties of the Church. 

The religious houses which had been refounded by Mary were 
again dissolved, and Parliament by the two important Acts of 
Supremacy and Uniformity (1559) reestablished the independ- 
ence of the Church in England. The Act of Supremacy required 
all the clergy, and every person holding office under the crown, 
to take an oath declaring the queen to be the supreme governor 
of the realm in all spiritual as well as in all temporal things. For 
refusing to deny the supremacy of the Pope many Catholics dur- 
ing Elizabeth's reign suffered death, and many more endured 
within the Tower the worse horrors of the rack. 

The Act of Uniformity forbade any clergyman to use any but 
the Anglican liturgy, and required every person to attend the 
Established Church on Sunday and other holy days. The perse- 
cutions which arose under this law caused many Catholics to seek 
freedom of worship in other countries. 

751. The Protestant Nonconformists ; Puritans and Separatists. 
■ — The Catholics were not the only persons among Elizabeth's 
subjects who were opposed to the Anglican worship. There were 
Protestant nonconformists — the Puritans and Separatists — who 
troubled her almost as much as the Catholics. 

The Puritans were so named because they desired & purer form 
of worship than the Anglican. The term was applied to them in 
derision ; but the sterling character of those thus designated at 



MARY STUART, QUEEN OF SCOTS 535 

length turned the epithet of reproach into a badge of honorable 
distinction. They did not withdraw from the Established Church, 
but remaining within its pale labored to reform it and to shape 
its discipline to their notions. These Puritans were destined to 
play a prominent part in the later affairs of England. 

The Separatists were still more zealous reformers than the Puri- 
tans. In their hatred of everything that bore any resemblance to 
the Catholic worship, they flung away the surplice and the prayer 
book, severed all connection with the Established Church, and 
refused to have anything to do with it. Under the Act of Uniform- 
ity they were persecuted with great severity, so that multitudes were 
led to seek an asylum upon the Continent. It was from among 
these exiles gathered in Holland that a little later came the pas- 
sengers of the Mayflower and Speedwell, — the Pilgrim Fathers, 
who laid the foundations of civil liberty in the New World. 

752. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. — A large part of the 
history of Elizabeth's reign is intertwined with the story of 
her cousin, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, the " modern Helen," 
" the most beautiful, the weakest, the most attractive, and most 
attracted of women." She was the daughter of James V of Scot- 
land, and to her in right of birth — according to all Catholics, 
who denied the validity of Henry's marriage with Anne Boleyn 
- — belonged the English crown next after Mary Tudor. 

Upon the death, in 1560, of her husband, Francis II of France, 
Mary gave up life at the French court and returned to her native 
land. She was now in her nineteenth year. The subtle charm of 
her beauty seems to have bewitched all who came into her pres- 
ence, save the more zealous of the reformers, who could never 
forget that their young sovereign was a Catholic. The stern old 
John Knox made her life miserable. He called her a " Moabite," 
and other opprobrious names, till she wept from sheer vexation. 

Other things now conspired with Mary's hated religion to alien- 
ate entirely the love of her people. Her second husband, Lord 
Darnley, was murdered. The queen was suspected of having 
some guilty knowledge of the affair. She was imprisoned and 
forced to abdicate in favor of her infant son James. 



536 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 

Escaping from prison, Mary fled into England (1568). Here 
she threw herself upon the generosity of her cousin Elizabeth, 
and entreated aid in recovering her throne. But the part which 
she was generally believed to have had in the murder of her 
husband, her disturbing claims to the English throne, and the 
fact that she was a Catholic all conspired to determine her fate. 
She was placed in confinement, and for nineteen years remained 
a prisoner. During all this time Mary was the center of innu- 
merable plots on the part of the Catholics, which aimed at set- 
ting her upon the English throne. The Pope, Pius V, aided these 
conspirators by a bull excommunicating Elizabeth and releasing 
her subjects from their allegiance (1570). Finally a carefully laid 
conspiracy to assassinate Elizabeth and place Mary on the throne 
was unearthed. The Spanish king, Philip II, was implicated. He 
wrote, " The affair is so much in God's service that it certainly 
deserves to be supported, and we must hope that our Lord will 
prosper it, unless our sins be an impediment thereto." 

Mary was tried for complicity in the plot, was declared guilty, 
and, after some hesitation, feigned or otherwise, on the part of 
Elizabeth, was ordered to the block (1587). Even after Eliza- 
beth had signed the warrant for her execution she attempted to 
evade responsibility in the matter by causing a suggestion to be 
made to Mary's jailers that they should kill her secretly. 

753 . The ' ' Invincible Armada " ; " Britain ' s Salamis "(1588). — 
The execution of Mary Stuart led immediately to the memorable 
attempt against England by the Spanish Armada. Before her 
death the Queen of Scots had by will disinherited her son and 
bequeathed to Philip II of Spain her claims to the English crown. 
To enforce these rights, to avenge the death of Mary, to punish 
Elizabeth for aiding his rebellious subjects in the Netherlands, 
and to deal a fatal blow to the Reformation in Europe by crush- 
ing the Protestants of England, Philip resolved upon making a 
tremendous effort for the conquest of the heretical island. Vast 
preparations were made for carrying out the project. Great fleets 
were gathered in the harbors of Spain, and a large army was as- 
sembled in the Netherlands to cooperate with the naval armament. 



THE "INVINCIBLE ARMADA" 



537 



Pope Sixtus V encouraged Philip in the enterprise, which was 
thus rendered a sort of crusade. At last the fleet, consisting of 
about one hundred and thirty ships, the largest naval armament 
that had ever appeared upon the Atlantic, and boastfully called 
the " Invincible Armada," set sail from Lisbon for the Channel. 
The approaching danger produced a perfect fever of excitement 
in England. Never did Roman citizens rise more splendidly to 




Fig. 135. — Spanish and English War Vessels of the Sixteenth 
Century. (From an engraving) 

avert some terrible peril threatening the republic than the Eng- 
lish people now arose as a single man to defend their island 
realm against the revengeful project of Spain. The imminent 
danger served to unite all classes, the gentry and the yeomanry, 
Protestants and Catholics. The latter might intrigue to set a 
Mary Stuart on the English throne, but they were not ready to 
betray their land into the hands of the hated Spaniards. 

On July 19, 1588, the Armada was first descried by the watch- 
men on the English cliffs. It swept up the Channel in the form 
of a great crescent, seven miles in width from tip to tip of horn. 
The English ships, about eighty in number, whose light structure 



538 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 

and swift movements, together with the superior gunnery of their 
sailors, gave them a great advantage over the clumsy Spanish gal- 
leons, almost immediately began to impede their advance, and for 
seven days incessantly harassed the Armada. One night, as the 
damaged fleet lay off the harbor of Calais, the English sent fire 
ships among the vessels, whereby a number were destroyed and 
a panic created among the others. A determined attack the next 
day by Howard, Drake, and Lord Henry Seymour inflicted a still 
severer loss upon the fleet. 

The Spaniards, thinking now of nothing save escape, spread 
their sails in flight, proposing to get away by sailing northward 
around the British Isles. But the storms of the northern seas 
dashed many of the remaining ships to pieces on the Scottish 
and the Irish shores. Barely one third of the ships of the 
Armada ever reentered the harbors whence they sailed. When 
intelligence of the woeful disaster was carried to the imperturb- 
able Philip, he simply said, " God's will be done ; I sent my 
fleet to fight against the English, not against the elements." 

Well may the great fight in the Channel which shattered the 
Armada be called "Britain's Salamis"; for like Athens' Salamis 
it revealed the weakness and proclaimed the downfall of a vast 
despotic empire, while at the same time it disclosed the strength 
and announced the rise of a new free state destined to a great 
future. But the destruction of the Armada concerned other than 
purely English and Spanish interests. It marked the turning 
point in the great duel between Catholicism and Protestantism. 
It not only decided that England was to remain Protestant, but 
it foreshadowed the independence of the Protestant Netherlands, 
and assured, or at least greatly helped to assure, the future of 
Protestantism in Scandinavia and in North Germany. 

754. Maritime and Colonial Enterprises. — The crippling of the 
naval power of Spain left England mistress of the seas. The little 
island realm now entered upon the most splendid period of her 
history. These truly were " the spacious times of great Elizabeth." 
The English people, stirred by recent events, seemed to burn with 
a feverish impatience for maritime adventure and glory. Many 



THE QUEEN'S DEATH 539 

a story of the daring exploits of English sea rovers during the reign 
of Elizabeth seems like a repetition of some tale of the old Vikings. 

Especially deserving of mention among the enterprises of these 
stirring and romantic times are the undertakings and adventures 
of Sir Walter Raleigh (15527-1618). Several expeditions were 
sent out by him for the purpose of making explorations and form- 
ing settlements in the New World. One of these, which explored 
the central coasts of North America, returned with such glowing 
accounts of the beauty and richness of the land visited, that, in 
honor of the virgin queen, it was named Virginia. 

Raleigh attempted to establish colonies in the new land (1585- 
1590), but the settlements were unsuccessful. The settlers, how- 
ever, when they returned home, carried back with them the 
tobacco plant, and introduced into England the habit of smok- 
ing it. It was at this time also that the potato, a native product 
of the New World, was brought to Ireland. These together with 
maize, or Indian corn, were the chief return the New World 
made to the Old for the great number of domesticated plants 
and grains which it received from thence. 

755. The Queen's Death The closing days of Elizabeth's 

reign were to her personally dark and gloomy. She seemed to 
be burdened with a secret grief 3 as well as by the growing in- 
firmities of age. She died March 24, 1603, in the seventieth year 
of her age and the forty-fifth of her reign. With her ended the 
Tudor line of English sovereigns. 

Literature of the Elizabethan Era 

756. Influences Favorable to Literature. — The years covered 
by the reign of Elizabeth constitute one of the most momentous 
periods in history. It was the age when Europe was most deeply 
stirred by the Reformation. It was, too, a period of marvelous 
physical and intellectual expansion and growth. The discoveries of 
Columbus and others had created a New World. The Renaissance 
had re-created the Old World, — had revealed an unsuspected 

3 In 1601 she sent to the block her chief favorite, the Earl of Essex, who had been 
found guilty of treason. 



540 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 

treasure in the civilizations of the past. Thus everything conspired 
to quicken men's intellect and stimulate their imagination. 

An age of such activity and achievement almost of necessity 
gives birth to a strong and vigorous literature. And thus is 
explained, in part at least, how during this period the English 
people — for no people of Europe felt more deeply the stir and 
movement of the times, nor helped more to create this same stir 
and movement, than the English nation — should have developed 
a literature of such originality and richness and strength as to 
make it the prized inheritance of all the world. 

To make special mention of all the great writers who adorned 
the Elizabethan era would carry us quite beyond the limits of 
our book. Having said something of the influence under which 
they wrote, we will simply add that this age was the age of Shake- 
speare and Spenser and Bacon. 4 

Selections from the Sources. — More's Utopia is the choicest literary 
product of the early revival of learning in England. The student should 
not fail to read it carefully. It lights up at once the social, the political, 
and the religious world of the time (cf. sec. 743). For a great variety of 
illustrative material, turn to Adams and Stephens, Select Documents of 
English Constitutional History, pp. 213-326; Henderson, Side Lights on 
English History, pp. 1-32; and Kendall, Source-Book, chaps, viii-x. 
In Payne, Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen (First Series, Oxford, 1893), 
read " The Famous Voyage of Sir Francis Drake," pp. 196-229. Robinson, 
Readings in European History, vol. ii, pp. 135-152 and 186-193. 

Secondary Works. — Seebohm, F., The Oxford Refo7-mers. A volume 
of rare freshness and charm on the fellow-work and influence of the Oxford 
reformers, — Colet, Erasmus, and More. The Cambridge Moder?t History, 
vol. i, chap. xiv. Green, J. R., Short History of the English People, chaps, 
vi and vii. FROUDE, J. A., English Seamen in the Sixteenth Centicry and 
The Spanish Story of the Armada. Gasquet, F. A., Henry VIII and the 
English Monasteries, 2 vols., and The Eve of the Reformation. These are 
the works of an eminent Catholic scholar. Creighton, M., Queen Eliza- 
beth and Cardinal Wolsey. Beesly, E. S., Queen Elizabeth. For concise 
narrations of the events dealt with in this chapter, see Gardiner's, 
Montgomery's, Terry's, Coman and Kendall's, Andrews', and Chey- 
ney's text-books on English history. And for biographical information, turn 
to the excellent articles in the English Dictionary of National Biography. 

Topic for Class Report. — Sir Thomas More and his romance Utopia. 

4 William Shakespeare (1564-1616); Edmund Spenser (1552 ?-i599); Francis Bacon 
(1561-1626). Shakespeare and Bacon, it will be noticed, outlived Elizabeth. 



CHAPTER LVIII 

THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS: RISE OF THE 

DUTCH REPUBLIC 

(i 572-1609) 

757. The Country. — The name Netherlands (lowlands) was 
formerly applied to all that district in the northwest of Europe, 
much of it sunk below the level of the sea, now occupied by the 
kingdoms of the Netherlands and Belgium. A large part of this 
region is simply the delta accumulations of the Rhine and other 
rivers emptying into the North Sea. Originally it was often over- 
flowed by its streams and inundated by the ocean. 

But this unpromising morass, protected at last by heavy dikes 
seaward against the invasions of the ocean, and by great embank- 
ments inland against the overflow of its streams, was destined to 
become the site of the most potent cities of Europe, and the seat 
of one of the foremost commonwealths of modern times. No 
country in Europe made greater progress in civilization during 
the mediaeval era than the Netherlands. At the opening of the 
sixteenth century they contained a crowded and busy popula- 
tion of three million souls. The ancient marshes had been trans- 
formed into carefully kept gardens and orchards. The walled 
cities numbered between two and three hundred. Antwerp rivaled 
even the greatest of the Italian cities.- " I was sad when I saw 
Antwerp," writes a Venetian ambassador, "for I saw Venice 
surpassed." 

758. The Low Countries under Charles V (15 15-15 5 5). — The 
Netherlands were part of those possessions over which the 
Emperor Charles V ruled by hereditary right. Towards the close 
of his reign he set up here the Inquisition with the object of sup- 
pressing the heresy of the reformers. Many persons perished at 
the stake and upon the scaffold, or were strangled, or buried 

54i 



542 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

alive. 1 But when Charles retired to the monastery at Yuste the 
reformed doctrines were, notwithstanding all his efforts, far more 
widely spread and deeply rooted in the Netherlands than when 
he entered upon their extirpation by fire and sword. 

759. Accession of Philip II. — In 1555, in the presence of an 
august and princely assembly at Brussels, Charles V abdicated the 
crown whose weight he could no longer bear, and placed it upon 
the head of his son Philip. What sort of man this son was we 
have already learned (sec. 723). 

Philip remained in the Netherlands four years, employing much 
of his time in devising means to root out the heresy of Protes- 
tantism. In 1559 he set sail for Spain, never to return. His arrival 
in the peninsula was celebrated by an auto de fe at Valladolid, fes- 
tivities which ended in the burning of thirteen persons whom the 
Inquisition had condemned as heretics. It was not delight at the 
sight of suffering that led Philip on his home-coming to be a spec- 
tator at these awful solemnities. He doubtless wished through 
his presence to give sanction to the work of the Holy Office, and 
to impress all with the fact that unity of religion in Spain, as the 
necessary basis of peace and unity in the state, would be main- 
tained by him at any and every cost. 

760. " Long live the Beggars ! " — Upon his departure from the 
Netherlands, Philip intrusted the government to his half-sister 
Margaret, Duchess of Parma, as regent. Under the administration 
of Margaret (155 9- 1567) the persecution of the Protestants went 
on with renewed bitterness. At last the nobles leagued together 
and resolved to petition the regent for a redress of grievances. 
When the duchess learned that the petitioners were about to wait 
upon her, she displayed great agitation. Thereupon one of her 
councilors exclaimed, "What, madam! afraid of these beggars?" 

The expression was carried to the nobles, who were assembled at 
a banquet. Straightway one of their number suspended a beggar's 

1 Charles' persecutions covered the years from 1521 to 1555. The number of 
martyrs during these years has been greatly exaggerated ; it was put as high as one 
hundred thousand by the celebrated Dutch jurist, Grotius (d. 1645). Blok believes 
the number actually suffering the death penalty was less than one thousand. See his 
History of the People of the Netherlands, vol. ii, p. 317. 



THE ICONOCLASTS 543 

wallet from his neck and, filling a wooden bowl with wine, proposed 
the toast, " Long live the beggars ! " The name was tumultuously 
adopted and became the party designation of the patriot Nether- 
landers during their long struggle with the Spanish power. 

761. The Iconoclasts (1566). — The only reply of the gov- 
ernment to the petition of the nobles for a mitigation of the 
severity of the edicts concerning heresy was a decree termed the 
Moderation, which substituted hanging for burning in the case 
of condemned heretics. 

The pent-up indignation of the people at length burst forth in 
uncontrollable fury. They gathered in great mobs and proceeded 
to demolish every image they could find in the churches through- 
out the country. The monasteries, too, were sacked, their libraries 
burned, and the inmates driven from their cloisters. The tempest 
destroyed innumerable art treasures, which have been as sincerely 
mourned by the lovers of the beautiful as the burned rolls of the 
Alexandrian library have been lamented by the lovers of learning. 

762. The Duke of Alva and the "Council of Blood" (1567). — 
The year folio wing, this outbreak Philip sent to the Netherlands a 
veteran Spanish army, " one of the most perfect engines of war 
ever seen in any age," headed by the Duke of Alva, a man after 
Philip's own heart, deceitful, fanatical, and merciless. 

Alva was one of the ablest generals of the age, and the intelli- 
gence of his coming threw the provinces into a state of the greatest 
agitation and alarm. Those who could do so hastened to get out 
of the country. William the Silent, Prince of Orange, one of 
the leading noblemen of the Lowlands, fled to Germany, where 
he began to gather an army of volunteers for the struggle which he 
now saw to be inevitable. 

Egmont and Hoorn, Catholic noblemen 2 of high rank and great 
distinction, were treacherously seized, cast into prison, and soon 
afterwards beheaded. The duchess was relieved of the govern- 
ment, which was committed to the firmer hands of Alva, who, to 

2 Many Catholics sympathized at first with the Protestants and acted with them, 
because they felt that Philip's acts were in direct violation of the chartered rights 
and privileges of the cities and provinces of the Netherlands. 



544 



REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 



aid him in the management of affairs, organized a most iniquitous 
tribunal, known in history as the " Council of Blood." 

The Inquisition was now reestablished, and a perfect reign of 
terror began. The number of Alva's victims during his short 
rule — he is said to have boasted that he had put to death over 
eighteen thousand — might almost persuade us that he had 
deliberately purposed the extermination of the people of the 
Netherlands. 

763. William of Orange (the Silent). — The eyes of all patriot 
Netherlanders were now turned to the Prince of Orange as their 
only deliverer. The prince was a deeply religious man, and believed 

himself called of Heaven to 
the work of rescuing his 
country from Spanish tyr- 
anny. Up to this time he 
had been a Catholic, having 
been brought up as a page 
in the household of the 
Emperor Charles V. He 
now embraced Protestant- 
ism ; but both as a Catho- 
lic and as a Protestant he 
opposed persecution on 
account of religious belief. 

William of Orange, like 
our own Washington, was a 
statesman rather than a sol- 
dier ; yet even as a leader in war he evinced talent of a high 
order. The Spanish armies were commanded successively by the 
most experienced and distinguished generals of Europe ; but 
the prince coped ably with them all, and in the masterly service 
which he rendered his country earned the title of " the Founder 
of Dutch Liberties." 

764. The Capture of Briel (1572); the Beginning of the Sea 
Power of the Dutch. — It was the nature of their country, half 
land, half water, which enabled the Dutch to make such a 




Fig. 136. — William of Orange (the 
Silent). (After a painting by Miere- 
■velt, Amsterdam) 



THE CAPTURE OF BRIEL 545 

prolonged and finally successful resistance to the power of Spain. 
The Dutch triumphed because the sea helped them. The in- 
fluence that this element was to exert upon the struggle was fore- 
shadowed early in the conflict by a celebrated exploit of Dutch 
seamen. 

The circumstances of this exploit were these. Almost at the 
outset of the war the Prince of Orange had commissioned some 
sailors as privateers to prey upon Spanish ships and to harass the 
coast towns which favored the enemy. Soon the sea was swarm- 
ing with these privateers, — Water Beggars, they were called, 
— who, out of reach of restraint, became veritable freebooters, 
and revived the days and emulated the deeds of the Saxon cor- 
sairs who a thousand years before had put out from these same 
or neighboring creeks and lagoons. 

One day a squadron of twenty or more ships of these bucca- 
neers made a descent upon the port of Briel (or Brill) in Holland, 
seized the place, and held it for the Prince of Orange. It was 
a small affair in itself, somewhat like the affair at Lexington in 
the American Revolution, but it stirred wonderfully the people of 
the Lowlands. Straightway other places opened their gates to the 
Water Beggars, and thus the rebellion speedily gained a secure 
basis for regular naval operations. It was the real beginning of 
the great sea power of the future Dutch Republic, which for two 
hundred years was to be a potent force in history. 

Having now gained some idea of the causes of the revolt and 
the nature of the struggle, we must hurry on to the issue of the 
matter. In so doing we shall pass unnoticed many sieges and 
battles, negotiations and treaties. 3 

765 . ' ' The Spanish Fury " ; the Pacification of Ghent (1576). — 
The year 1576 was marked by a revolt of the Spanish soldiers on 
account of their not receiving their pay, the costly war having 
drained Philip's treasury. The mutinous army marched through 
the land, pillaging city after city and paying themselves with the 
spoils. The beautiful city of Antwerp was ruined. The atrocities 

3 Read in Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic the siege and sack of Haarlem and 
the relief of Leyden. 



546 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

committed by the frenzied soldiers caused the outbreak to be 
called the "Spanish Fury." 

The terrible state of affairs led to an alliance between Holland 
and Zealand and the other fifteen provinces of the Netherlands, 
known in history as the Pacification of Ghent (1576). The resist- 
ance to the Spanish crown had thus far been carried on without 
concerted action among the several states. 

766. The Union of Utrecht (1579). — With the Spanish forces 
under the lead first of Don John of Austria, the hero victor of 
Lepanto (sec. 725), and afterwards of Prince Alexander of Parma, 
a commander of most distinguished ability, the war now went on 
with increased vigor, fortune, with many vacillations, inclining to 
the side of the Spaniards. Disaffection arose among the Nether- 
landers, the outcome of which was the separation of the northern 
and southern provinces. The seven Protestant states of the North, 
the chief of which were Holland and Zealand, by the Treaty of 
Utrecht (1579), drew together in a permanent confederation, 
known as the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands, with 
the Prince of Orange as stadtholder. In this league was laid the 
foundation of the renowned Dutch Republic. 

The ten Catholic provinces of the South, although they con- 
tinued their contest with Philip a little longer, ultimately sub- 
mitted to Spanish tyranny. Portions of these provinces were 
eventually absorbed by France, while the remainder after varied 
fortunes finally became the present kingdom of Belgium. With 
their history we shall have no further concern at present, but turn 
now to follow the fortunes of the rising republic of the North. 

767. The "Ban" and the "Apology " (1580-1581). — William 
of Orange was, of course, the animating spirit of the confederacy 
formed by the Treaty of Utrecht. In the eyes of Philip and his 
viceroys he appeared the sole obstacle in the way of the pacifica- 
tion of the provinces and their return to obedience. In vain had 
Philip sent against him the ablest and most distinguished com- 
manders of the age ; in vain had he endeavored to detach him 
from the cause of his country by magnificent bribes of titles, 
offices, and fortune. 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 547 

Philip now resolved to employ public assassination 4 for the 
removal of the invincible general and the incorruptible patriot. 
He published a ban against the prince, declaring him an outlaw 
and " the chief disturber of all Christendom and especially of 
these Netherlands," and offering any one who would deliver him 
into his hands " dead or alive " pardon for any crime he might 
have committed, a title of nobility, and twenty-five thousand 
crowns in gold or in lands. 

The prince responded to the infamous edict by a remarkable 
paper entitled "The Apology of the Prince of Orange," the most 
terrible arraignment of tyranny that was ever penned. The 
"Apology" was scattered throughout Europe, and everywhere 
produced a profound impression. 

768. The Declaration of Independence (July 26, 1581). — The 
United Provinces had not yet formally renounced their allegiance 
to the Spanish crown. They now deposed Philip as their sover- 
eign, broke in pieces his seal, and put forth to the world their 
memorable Declaration of Independence, a document as sacred 
to the Dutch as the Declaration of 1776 is to Americans. 

The preamble contains these words : " Whereas God did not 
create the people slaves to their prince, to obey his commands, 
whether right or wrong, but rather the prince for the sake of the 
subjects, to govern them according to equity, to love and support 
them as a father his children or a shepherd his flock, and even at 
the hazard of life to defend and preserve them • [therefore] when 
he does not behave thus, but, on the contrary, oppresses them, 
seeking opportunities to infringe their ancient customs and privi- 
leges, exacting from them slavish compliance, then he is no longer 

* We use the expression " public assassination " in order to indicate a change in 
Philip's methods. He had all along tried to get rid of the prince by private or secret 
assassination. Now his edict of outlawry makes the proposed assassination avowedly 
a public or governmental affair. To comprehend this proceeding we must bear in mind 
that in the sixteenth century assassination was not looked upon with that utter abhor- 
rence with which we rightly regard it ; in the language of the historian Lingard, it 
was then " one of the recognized weapons of constitutional power." In the petty 
states of Italy it was a weapon resorted to almost universally, and seemingly without 
any compunctions of conscience, and even in the North many of the rulers at one time 
and another had recourse to it. Compare sees. 752, 777, and 788. 



548 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 

a prince, but a tyrant, and the subjects . . . may not only disal- 
low his authority but legally proceed to the choice of another 
prince for their defense." 

This language was a wholly new dialect to the ears of Philip 
and of princes like him. They had never heard anything like 
it before uttered in such tones by a whole people. But it was 
a language destined to spread wonderfully and to become very 
common. We shall hear it often enough a little later in the era 
of the Political Revolution. It will become familiar speech in 
England, in America, in France, — almost everywhere. 

769. Assassination of the Prince of Orange. — " The ban soon 
bore fruit." Upon the 10th day of July, 1584, after five previous 
unsuccessful attempts had been made upon his life, the Prince of 
Orange was fatally shot by an assassin named Balthasar Gerard. 
Philip approved the murder as "an exploit of supreme value to 
Christendom." The murderer was put to death with hideous tor- 
ture, but his heirs received the promised reward, being endowed 
with certain of the estates of the prince and honored by eleva- 
tion to the rank of the Spanish nobility. 

770. Progress of the War ; the Truce of 1609. — Severe as was 
the blow sustained by the Dutch patriots in the death of the 
Prince of Orange, they did not lose heart, but continued the 
struggle with the most admirable courage and steadfastness. 
Prince Maurice, a mere youth of seventeen years, the second son 
of William, was chosen stadtholder in his place, and he proved 
himself a worthy son of the great chief and patriot. 

The war now went on with unabated fury. France as well as 
England became involved, both fighting against Philip, who was 
now laying claims to the crowns of both countries. The destruc- 
tion of the Spanish Armada in 1588 marked the turning point of 
the struggle, yet not the end of it. Europe finally grew weary of 
the seemingly interminable struggle, 5 and the Spanish commanders 
becoming convinced that it was impossible to reduce the Dutch 
rebels to obedience by force of arms, negotiations were entered 

5 In 1598 peace was made between Spain and France, and then in 1604 between 
Spain and England. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 549 

into which issued in the celebrated Truce of 1609. This truce 
was in reality an acknowledgment by Spain of the independence 
of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, although the Spanish 
king was so unwilling to admit the fact of his inability to reduce 
the rebel states to submission that the treaty was termed simply 
" a truce for twelve years." Spain did not formally acknowledge 
their independence until forty years afterwards, in the Peace of 
Westphalia, at the end of the Thirty Years' War (1648). 

771. Influence of the Establishment of the Dutch Republic upon 
both the Religious and the Political Revolution. — The success- 
ful issue of the revolt in the Netherlands meant much for the 
cause of the reformers. The Protestant Lowlands formed a sort 
of strategic point in the great fight between Catholicism and Prot- 
estantism. The loss of this ground might have proved fatal to 
the Protestant cause. 

The establishment of the Dutch Republic had also great sig- 
nificance for the Political Revolution. In the seventeenth century 
it was Holland that was the foremost champion of the cause of 
political freedom against Bourbon despotism. It was a worthy 
descendant of William the Silent who, at one of the most critical 
moments of English history, when Englishmen were struggling 
doubtfully against Stuart tyranny, came to their help and rescued 
English liberties from the peril in which they lay (sec. 845). 

Selections from the Sources. — Old South Leaflets, No. 72, "The Dutch 
Declaration of Independence " ; No. 69, " The Description of the New 
Netherlands." Robinson, Readings in European History, vol. ii, pp. 1 7 1-1 79. 

Secondary Works. — Motley, J. L., The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 
3 vols., and History of the United Netherlands, 4 vols. These histories by 
Motley are classical, but they lack in judicial spirit. They should be read 
in connection with Blok, J. P., History of the People of the Netherlands, 
3 vols. Young, A., History of the Netherlands. Harrison, F., William 
the Silent. Putnam, R., William the Silent, 2 vols. For New Netherlands, 
consult Fiske, J., The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, 2 vols. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The protective waterworks of the Low 
Countries. 2. How William of Orange acquired his title of "the Silent." 
3. The siege and relief of Leyden. 4. The New Netherlands. 



CHAPTER LIX 

THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE 

(1562-1629) 

772. The Reformation in France. — Before Luther posted his 
ninety-five theses at Wittenberg there had appeared in the Uni- 
versity of Paris and elsewhere in France men who from the study 
of the Scriptures had come to entertain opinions very like those 
of the German reformer. The movement thus begun received a 
fresh impulse from the uprising in Germany under Luther. The 
new doctrines found adherents especially among the lesser nobility 
and the burgher class, and struck deep root in the south, — the 
region of the old Albigensian heresy. 

773. King Francis II, Catherine de' Medici, and the Guises. — 
The Valois 1 king, Francis II, began his reign in 1559. His wife 
was the young and fascinating Mary Stuart of Scotland. Francis 
was a weak-minded boy of sixteen years. The power behind the 
throne was the chiefs of the family of the Guises, who were zealous 
Catholics, and the king's mother, Catherine de' Medici. 

Catherine was an Italian. She seems to have been almost or 
quite destitute of religious convictions of any kind. She was 
determined to rule, and this she did by holding the balance of 
power between the two religious parties. When it suited her pur- 
pose, she favored the Protestants ; and when it suited her purpose 
better, she favored the Catholics. Through her counsels and pol- 
icies she contributed largely to make France wretched through the 
reigns of her three sons, and to bring her house to a miserable end. 

774. The Huguenot 2 Leaders : the Bourbon Princes and Admiral 
Coligny. — Opposed to the Guises were the Bourbon princes, 

1 The Valois kings (compare sec. 641, n. 9) of the sixteenth century were Louis XII 
(1498-1515), Francis I (1515-1547), Henry II (1547-1559), Francis II (1559-1560), 
Charles IX (1560-1574), and Henry III (1574-1589). Henry IV, the successor of 
Henry III, was the first cf the Bourbons. 

2 This word is probably from the German Eidgenossen, meaning " oath comrades." 

S5o 



THE MASSACRE OF VASSY 55 I 

Antony, king of Navarre, and Louis, Prince of Conde\ Next after 
the brothers of Francis II, they were heirs to the French throne. 

Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France, was " the military hero 
of the French Reformation." Early in life he had embraced the 
doctrines of the reformers, and remained to the last the trusted 
and consistent, though ill-starred, champion of the Protestants. 
His is the most heroic figure that emerges from the unutterable 
confusion of the times. 

The foregoing notice of parties and their chiefs will suffice to 
render intelligible the events which we have now to narrate. 

775. The Massacre of Vassy (1562). — After the short reign 
of Francis II (15 59-1560) his brother Charles came to the throne 
as Charles IX. He was only ten years of age, so the queen mother 
assumed the government in his name. Pursuing her favorite maxim 
to rule by setting one party as a counterpoise to the other, she 
gave the Bourbon princes a place in the government, and also by 
a royal edict gave the Huguenots a limited toleration and forbade 
their further persecution. 

It was the violation by the adherents of the Duke of Guise of 
this edict of toleration that finally caused the growing animosities 
of the two parties to break out in civil war. While passing through 
the country with a body of armed attendants, at a small place 
called Vassy the duke came upon a company of Huguenots assem- 
bled in a barn for worship. His retainers first insulted and then 
attacked them, killing about forty of the company and wounding 
many more. 

Under the lead of Admiral Coligny and the Prince of Cond6, 
the Huguenots now rose throughout France. Philip II of Spain 
sent an army to aid the Catholics, while Elizabeth of England 
extended help to the Huguenots. For the lifetime of a genera- 
tion France was distressed, almost without respite, by bitter inter- 
necine strife. 

776. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day (August 24, 1572). 
— Eight years after the massacre of Vassy, Catherine de' Medici, 
as a means of cementing a treaty which had been arranged 
between the two parties, proposed that the Princess Margaret, 



552 THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE 

the sister of Charles IX, should be given in marriage to Henry 
of Bourbon, the new young king of Navarre. The announcement 
of the proposed alliance caused great rejoicing among Catholics 
and Protestants alike, and the chiefs of both parties crowded to 
Paris to attend the wedding. 

Before the festivities which followed the nuptial ceremonies 
were over, the world was shocked by one of the most awful 
crimes recorded in history, — the massacre of the Huguenots in 
Paris on St. Bartholomew's Day. The circumstances which led to 
this fearful tragedy were these. Among the Protestant nobles who 
• came up to Paris to attend the wedding was Admiral Coligny. 
Jealous of his influence over her son, Catherine resolved upon 
the death of the admiral. The attempt miscarried, Coligny 
receiving only a slight wound from the assassin's ball. The 
Huguenots rallied about their wounded chief with loud threats 
of revenge. Catherine, driven on by insane fear, now deter- 
mined upon the death of all the Huguenots in Paris as the only 
measure of safety. By the 23d of August the plans for the mas- 
sacre were all arranged. On the evening of that day Catherine 
went to her son and represented to him that the Huguenots had 
formed a plot for the assassination of the royal family and the 
leaders of the Catholic party, and that the utter ruin of their 
house and cause could be averted only by the immediate destruc- 
tion of the Protestants within the city walls. The order for the 
massacre was then laid before him for his signature. The weak- 
minded king shrank in terror from the deed, and at first refused 
to sign the decree ; but overcome at last by the representations of 
his mother, he exclaimed, " I consent, provided not one Huguenot 
be left alive in France to reproach me with the deed." 

A little past the hour of midnight on St. Bartholomew's Day 
(August 24, 1572), at a preconcerted signal, — the tolling of a 
bell, — the massacre began. Coligny was one of the first victims. 
For three days and nights the massacre went on within the city. 
The number of victims in Paris is variously estimated at from one 
thousand to ten thousand. With the capital cleared of Huguenots, 
orders were issued to the principal cities of France to purge 



REIGN OF HENRY III 553 

themselves in like manner of heretics. In many places the decree 
was disobeyed ; but in others the orders were carried out, and 
frightful massacres took place. The number of victims throughout 
the country is unknown ; estimates differ widely, running from 
two thousand to a hundred thousand. 

The massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day raised a cry of execra- 
tion in almost every part of the civilized world, among Catholics 
and Protestants alike. Philip II, however, is said to have received 
the news -with unfeigned joy; while Pope Gregory XIII caused 
a Te Demn, in commemoration of the event, to be sung in the 
church of St. Mark in Rome. Respecting this it should in justice 
be said that Catholic writers maintain that the Pope acted under 
a misconception of the facts, it having been represented to him 
that the massacre resulted from a thwarted plot of the Huguenots 
against the royal family of France and the Catholic Church. 

777. Reign of Henry III (1574-1589). — Instead of extermi- 
nating heresy in France, the massacre only served to rouse the 
Huguenots to a more determined defense of their faith. Through- 
out the last two years of the reign of Charles IX and the fifteen 
succeeding years of the reign of his brother Henry III the coun- 
try was in a state of turmoil and war. Finally, in 1589, the king, 
who jealous of the growing power and popularity of the Duke of 
Guise had caused him to be assassinated, was himself struck down 
by the avenging dagger of a Dominican monk. With him ended 
the House of Valois. 

778. Accession of Henry IV (1589). — Henry of Bourbon, king 
of Navarre, who for many years had been the most prominent 
leader of the Huguenots, now came to the throne as the first of 
the Bourbon kings. His accession lifted into prominence one of 
the most celebrated royal houses in European history. The polit- 
ical story of France, and indeed of Europe, from this time on to 
the French Revolution, and for some time after that, is in great 
part the story of the House of Bourbon. 

Henry did not secure without a struggle the crown that was his 
by right. The nation, still mainly Catholic, was not ready to 
acquiesce in the accession to the French throne of a Protestant 



554 THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE 

prince. The Catholics declared for Cardinal Bourbon, Henry's 
uncle, and France was thus kept in the whirl of civil war. 

779. Henry turns Catholic (1593). — After the war had gone 
on for about four years the quarrel was closed, for the time being, 
by Henry's becoming a Catholic. Mingled motives led Henry to 
do this. He was personally liked, even by the Catholic chiefs, and 
he was well aware that it was only his Huguenot faith that pre- 
vented their being his hearty supporters. Hence duty and policy 
seemed to concur in urging him to remove the sole obstacle in the 
way of their ready loyalty, and thus to bring peace and quiet to 
distracted France. 

780. The Edict of Nantes (1598). — As soon as Henry had 
become the fully acknowledged king of France, he gave himself 
to the work of composing the affairs of his kingdom. The most 
noteworthy of the measures he adopted to this end was the pub- 
lication of the celebrated Edict of Nantes (April 13, 1598). By 
this decree the Huguenots were secured perfect freedom of con- 
science and practical freedom of worship. All public offices and 
employments were opened to them the same as to Catholics. 
Moreover, they were allowed to retain possession of a number of 
fortified towns as pledges of good faith and as places of defense. 
Among these places was the important city of La Rochelle. 

The granting of this edict is memorable for the reason that it 
was the first formal recognition by a great European state of the 
principle of religious toleration and equality. Here, for the first 
time since the triumph of Christianity over paganism in the 
Roman Empire, a great nation makes a serious effort to try to 
get along with two creeds in the state. It was almost a century 
before even England went as far in the way of granting freedom 
of conscience and of worship. 

781. Character of Henry IV's Reign; his Plans and Death. — 
With the temporary hushing of the long-continued quarrels of 
the Catholics and Protestants, France entered upon such a 
period of prosperity as she had not known for many years. 
Henry's paternal solicitude for his humblest subjects secured for 
him the title of Father of his People. In devising and carrying 



LOUIS XIII 



555 



out his measures of reform, the king was aided by one of the most 
prudent and sagacious advisers that ever strengthened the hands 
of a prince, — -the illustrious Duke of Sully (i 560-1 641). 

Towards the close of his reign Henry, feeling strong in his 
resources and secure in his power, began to revolve in his mind 
vast projects for the aggrandizement of France and the weakening 
of her old enemy, the House of Hapsburg, in both its branches. 3 
He was making great preparations for war, when the dagger of 
a fanatic named Ravaillac cut short 
his life and plans (16 10). 

782. Louis XIII (1610-1643); 
Cardinal Richelieu and his Policy. — 
The reign of Henry's son and suc- 
cessor, Louis XIII, was rendered 
notable by the ability of his chief 
minister, Cardinal Richelieu (1585— 
1642), the Wolsey of France, one of 
the most remarkable characters of the 
seventeenth century. For the space 
of eighteen years this ecclesiastic was 
the actual sovereign of France, and 
swayed the destinies not only of that 
country but, it might almost be said, 
those of Europe as well. 

Richelieu's policy was twofold : 
first, to render the authority of the French king absolute in France; 
second, to make the power of France supreme in Europe. 

783. Siege and Capture of La Rochelle (1627-1628); Political 
Power of the Huguenots broken. — To reach his first end Riche- 
lieu resolved to break down the political power of the Huguenot 
chiefs, who, " Protestants first and Frenchmen afterwards," were 
constantly challenging the royal authority and threatening the 

3 In connection with his designs against the House of Hapsburg, Henry is repre- 
sented in Sully's Memoirs as having had in mind a most magnificent scheme, — 
the organization of all the Christian states of Europe into a great confederation or 
commonwealth, and the abolition of war by the creation of an international peace 
tribunal. This scheme is known as the " Grand Design." 




Fig. 137. — Cardinal Riche- 
lieu. (After the painting 
by Philippe de Champagne) 



556 THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE 

dismemberment of France. Accordingly he led in person an army 
to the siege of La Rochelle, which the Huguenots were planning 
to make the capital of an independent Protestant commonwealth. 
After a gallant resistance of more than a year the city was com- 
pelled to open its gates (1628). 

The Huguenots maintained the struggle a few months longer 
in the south of France, but were finally everywhere reduced to 
submission. The result of the war was the complete destruction 
of the political power of the French Protestants. A treaty of peace 
called the Edict of Grace (1629) left them, however, freedom of 
worship, according to the provisions of the Edict of Nantes. 
This treaty properly marks the close of the religious wars which 
had now distressed France, intermittently, for two generations. 

784. Richelieu and the Thirty Years' War. — When Cardinal 
Richelieu came to the head of affairs in France there was going 
on in Germany the Thirty Years' War (16 18-1648). Although 
Richelieu had just crushed French Protestantism, he now gave 
assistance to the Protestant German princes because their success 
meant the division of Germany and the humiliation of Austria. 
Richelieu did not live to see the end either of the Thirty Years' 
War or of that which he had begun with Spain ; but his policy, 
carried out by others, finally resulted, as we shall learn hereafter, 
in the humiliation of both branches of the House of Hapsburg and 
the lifting of France to the first place among the powers of Europe. 

Selections from the Sources. — Duke of Sully, Memoirs (Bonn). 
For a short account of the contents of this work, consult Historical Sources 
in Schools (Report to the New England History Teachers' Association, 
pp. 99-102). Translations and Reprints, vol. iii, No. 3, extracts under " The 
Reformation in France." Robinson, Readings in European History, vol. ii, 

pp. i79- l8 5- 

Secondary Works. — Baird, H. M., The Huguenots and Henry of 
Navarre and Theodore Beza. Besant, W., Gaspard de Coligny. Willert, 
P. F., Henry of Navarre. Hassall, A., The French People, chaps, x and xi. 
Lodge, R., Richelieu. Parkman, F., Pioneers of France in the New World ; 
for the Huguenots in Florida and Brazil, and Champlain and his associates. 
See also Fiske, J., New England and New France, chaps, i-iii. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Catherine de' Medici. 2. Admiral 
Coligny and his project of French settlements in Brazil and Florida. 
3. The Duke of Sully. 4. The " Grand Design." 



CHAPTER LX 

THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 
(1618-1648) 

785. Nature and Causes of the War. — The long and calamitous 
Thirty Years' War was the last great combat between Protestant- 
ism and Catholicism in Europe. It started as a struggle between 
the Protestant and Catholic princes of Germany, but gradually 
involved almost all the states of the continent, degenerating at 
last into a shameful and heartless struggle for power and territory. 

The real cause of the war was the enmity existing between the 
German Protestants and Catholics. But if a more specific cause 
be sought, it will be found in the character of the articles of the 
celebrated Religious Peace of Augsburg (sec. 721). The Catholics 
and Protestants did not interpret alike the provisions of that com- 
promise treaty. Each party by its encroachments gave the other 
occasion for complaint. The Protestants at length formed for their 
mutual protection a league called the Evangelical Union (1608). 
In opposition to the Union, the Catholics formed a confederation 
known as the Holy League (1609). All Germany was thus pre- 
pared to burst into the flames of a religious war. 

786. The Bohemian Period of the War (161 8-1 623). — The 
flames that were to desolate Germany for a generation were first 
kindled in Bohemia, where were still smoldering embers of the 
Hussite wars, which two centuries before had desolated that land 
(sec. 659). The Protestants there rose in revolt against their 
Catholic king, Ferdinand, 1 elected a new Protestant king, 2 and 
drove out the Jesuits. The war had scarcely opened when, the 
imperial office falling vacant, Ferdinand was elected Emperor. 

1 Ferdinand was the head of the House of Hapsburg, which family had long held 
the throne of Bohemia. After his election to the imperial office, mentioned a little 
farther on in the text, his title became Emperor Ferdinand II (1619-1637). 

2 Frederick V, Elector Palatine, son-in-law of James I of England. 

557 



558 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 

With the power he now wielded, together with the help he received 
from the Catholic League, it was not a difficult matter for him 
to quell the Protestant insurrection in his royal dominions. The 
leaders of the revolt were executed and the reformed faith in 
Bohemia was almost uprooted. 

787. The Danish Period (1 625-1 629). — The situation of affairs 
at this moment in Germany, with a zealous and powerful Catho- 
lic, inclined and prepared to follow in the footsteps of Charles V, 
at the head of the Germanic body, filled not only the Protestant 
princes of Germany but all the Protestant powers of the North 
with the greatest alarm. Christian IV, king of Denmark, sup- 
ported by England and the Dutch Netherlands, threw himself into 
the struggle as the champion of German Protestantism. What is 
known as the Danish period of the war now begins (1625). 

The war, in the main, proved disastrous to the Protestant allies, 3 
and Christian IV was finally constrained to make peace with the 
Emperor (Peace of Lubeck, 1629) and retire from the struggle. 

788. The Swedish Period (1 630-1 635) : Wallenstein, Gustavus 
Adolphus, Tilly — and Wallenstein again. — - At this moment of 
seeming triumph Ferdinand was impelled by rising discontent and 
jealousies to dismiss from his service his most efficient general, 
Wallenstein. Only a few months before this, Gustavus Adolphus, 
king of Sweden, with a veteran and enthusiastic army of sixteen 
thousand Swedes, had appeared in North Germany as the cham- 
pion of the dispirited and leaderless Protestants. Various motives 
had concurred in leading him thus to intervene in the struggle. 
He was urged to this course by his strong Protestant convictions 
and sympathies. Furthermore, the progress of the imperial arms 
in North Germany was imperiling Swedish interests in the Baltic, 
and threatening to establish the supremacy of the Austrian Haps- 
burgs over what was regarded by the sovereigns of Sweden as a 
Swedish lake. 

The Protestant princes' jealousy and distrust of the Swede 
Gustavus now contributed to a most terrible disaster. At this 

3 Among the important episodes of the war were the defeat of the king of Denmark by 
Tilly at Lutter (1626), and the unsuccessful siege of Stralsund by Wallenstein (1628). 



THE SWEDISH PERIOD 



559 



moment Tilly, leader of the forces of the Holy League, was 
besieging the Protestant city of Magdeburg. But the Electors 
of Brandenburg and Saxony, from whom the city should have 
received help, would not, or at least did not, cooperate with 
Gustavus in raising the siege. In a short time the city was taken 
by storm and given up to sack and pillage. Thousands of the 
inhabitants perished miserably. Tilly wrote to Ferdinand that 
since the fall of Troy and 
Jerusalem such a victory had 
never been seen. 

The cruel fate of Magde- 
burg excited the alarm of 
the Protestant princes. The 
Electors of Brandenburg and 
Saxony now united their 
forces with those of the 
Swedish king. Tilly was 
twice defeated, and in his 
last battle fatally wounded 
(1632). In the death of 
Tilly, Ferdinand lost his 
most trustworthy general. 

The imperial cause ap- 
peared desperate. There 
was but one man in Germany who could turn the tide of victory 
that was running so strongly in favor of the Swedish monarch. 
That man was Wallenstein, and to him the Emperor now turned. 
Wallenstein agreed to raise an army, provided his control of it 
should be absolute. Ferdinand was constrained to grant all that 
his old general demanded. Wallenstein now raised his standard, 
to which rallied the adventurers not only of Germany but of all 
Europe as well. 

With an army of forty thousand men obedient to his commands, 
Wallenstein risked a battle with the Swedes on the memorable 
field of Liitzen, in Saxony. The Swedes won the day, but lost 
their leader and sovereign (1632). 




Fig. 1- 



— Gustavus Adolphus. (From 
a painting by Vandyke) 



560 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 

We may sum up the results of Gustavus Adolphus' interven- 
tion in the Thirty Years' War in these words of the historian 
Gindely : " He averted the overthrow with which Protestantism 
was threatened in Germany." 

Notwithstanding the death of their great king and commander, 
the Swedes did not withdraw from the war. Hence the struggle 
went on, the advantage being for the most part with the Protes- 
tant allies. Ferdinand, at just this time, was embarrassed by the 
suspicious movements of his general, Wallenstein. Becoming con- 
vinced that he was meditating the betrayal of the imperial cause, 
the Emperor caused him to be assassinated (1634). This event 
marks very nearly the end of the Swedish period of the war. 

789. The Swedish-French Period (1635-1648). — Had it not 
been for the selfish and ambitious interference of France, the 
woeful war which had now desolated Germany for half a genera- 
tion might here have come to an end, for both sides were weary 
of it. But Richelieu was not willing that the war should end 
until the House of Austria was completely humbled. Accordingly 
he encouraged the Swedish chancellor Oxenstiern, as he had 
Gustavus, to carry on the war, promising him the aid of the 
French armies. 

The war thus lost in large part its original character of a con- 
tention between the Catholic and Protestant princes of Germany, 
and became a political struggle between the House of Austria 
and the House of Bourbon, in which the former was fighting for 
existence, the latter for national aggrandizement. 

And so the miserable war went on year after year. It had 
become a heartless and conscienceless struggle for spoils. The 
Swedes fought to fasten their hold upon the mouths of the Ger- 
man rivers, the French to secure a grasp upon the Rhine lands. 
The earlier actors in the drama at length passed from the scene, 
but their parts were carried on by others. 

790. The Peace of Westphalia (1648). — The war was finally 
ended by the celebrated Peace of Westphalia. The chief articles 
of this important peace may be made to fall under two heads, — 
those relating to territorial boundaries and those respecting religion. 



r> ..tiios 1 



,co5~ 



\t3. 




l7a 



h v a 



/KM' 



i 

vt k 

\ -a- 



tf 1 



'v- 



■0 Wvt^J (Vw^'l 
Lemberg — _/V . \ ^TThHL "' I 



y 

i 



Ci' 



Varoa 



1 a c 



ro 



Hicopolis 



? 8iooV e 



j<* 



Adrianople? 



azort-l. 



otfvS 






Vt ° 







E 



/ / 



nth 

ls\ y ' ',...9 

enice)« , 

Crete 
(ToTeMce) 

A. N 



Rhodes 



S 









VT 






Jaff»/> ort 



/' 
/ 

/ 
/ 



fvt 






THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA 56 1 

As to the first, these cut short in three directions the actual or 
nominal limits of the Holy Roman Empire. Switzerland and the 
United Netherlands were severed from it; for though both of 
these countries had been for a long time practically independent 
of the Empire, this independence had never been acknowledged 
in any formal way. France gained lands which gave her a foot- 
hold on the Rhine and an open door into Germany, — a door 
which remained open until 1871, when Germany pushed France 
back from the river and closed and safeguarded the door. 

Sweden, already a great maritime power, was given territories 
in North Germany (Western Pomerania and other lands 4 ) which 
gave her command of the mouths of three important German 
rivers, — the Oder, the Elbe, and the Weser. 

The changes within the Empire were many, and some of them 
important. Brandenburg especially, the nucleus of a future great 
state, received considerable additions of territory. 

The articles respecting religion were even more important than 
those which established the metes and bounds of the different 
states. Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists were all put upon the 
same footing. Every prince, with some reservations, was to have 
the right to make his religion the religion of his people, and to 
banish all who refused to adopt the established creed ; but such 
nonconformists were to have five years in which to emigrate. 5 

The different states of the Empire — they numbered over four 
hundred, counting the free imperial cities — were left almost 
wholly independent of the imperial authority. They were given 
the right to enter into alliances with one another and with foreign 
princes, but not, of course, against the Emperor or the Empire. 
This provision made the Empire merely a loose confederation. 

These were some of the most important provisions of the noted 
Peace of Westphalia. For more than two centuries they formed 
the fundamental law of Germany. 

4 These lands still remained a part of the Germanic body, and the king of Sweden 
thus became a prince of the Empire and entitled to a seat in the German Diet. 

5 The history of the Palatinate illustrates the workings of this provision of the 
peace : in the space of sixty years the people of that principality were compelled by their 
successive rulers to change their religion four times. But this was an exceptional case. 



562 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 

791. Effects of the War upon Germany. — It is impossible to 
picture the wretched condition in which the Thirty Years' War left 
Germany. When the struggle began, the population of the country 
was thirty millions ; when it ended, twelve millions. Two thirds 
of the personal property had been destroyed. Many of the once 
large and flourishing cities were reduced to " mere shells." The 
Duchy of Wurtemberg, which had half a million of inhabitants at 

.the commencement of the war, at its close had barely fifty thou- 
sand. The once powerful Hanseatic League was virtually broken 
up. On every hand were the charred remains of the hovels of the 
peasants and the palaces of the nobility. Vast districts lay waste 
without an inhabitant. The very soil in many regions had reverted 
to its primitive wildness. The lines of commerce were broken, 
and some trades and industries swept quite out of existence. 

The effects upon the fine arts, upon science, learning, and morals, 
were even more lamentable. Painting, sculpture, and architecture 
had perished. The cities which had been the home of all these 
arts lay in ruins. Poetry had ceased to be cultivated. Education 
was neglected. Moral law was forgotten. Vice, nourished by the 
licentious atmosphere of the camp, reigned supreme. Thus civili- 
zation in Germany, which had begun to develop with so much 
promise, received a check from which it did not begin to recover, 
so benumbed were the very senses of men, for a generation and 
more. 

792. Conclusion. — The Peace of Westphalia is a prominent 
landmark in universal history. It marks the end of the Reforma- 
tion period and the beginning of that of the Political Revolution. 
Henceforth, speaking broadly, men will fight for constitutions, 
not for creeds. We shall find them more intent on questions of 
civil government and political rights than on questions of Church 
government and religious dogmas. We shall not often see one 
nation attacking another, or one party in a nation assaulting an- 
other party, on account of a difference in religious opinion. 6 

6 The Puritan Revolution in England may look like a religious war, but we shall 
learn that it was primarily a political contest, — a struggle against despotism in the 
state. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 563 

But in setting the Peace of Westphalia to mark the end of the 
Era of Religious Wars we do not mean to convey the idea that 
men had come to embrace the beneficent doctrine of religious 
toleration. As a matter of fact, no real toleration had yet been 
reached, — nothing save the semblance of toleration. The long 
conflict of a century and more, and the vicissitudes of fortune, 
which to-day gave one party the power of the persecutor and 
to-morrow made the same sect the victims of persecution, had 
simply forced all to the practical conclusion that they must toler- 
ate one another, — that one sect must not attempt to put another 
down by force. But it has required the broadening and liberaliz- 
ing lessons of the two centuries and over that have since passed 
to bring men to see, even in part, that the thing they must do is 
the very thing they ought to do. 

With this single word of caution we now pass to the study of 
the Era of the Political or Democratic Revolution, a period char- 
acterized in particular by the growth of divine-right kingship and 
by the great struggle between despotic and liberal principles of 
government. 

Selections from the Sources. — The student will do well to begin his 
study of the Thirty Years' War by a careful reading of Historical Leaflets 
(Crozer Theological Seminary), No. 5, " The Peace of Augsburg." He will 
here learn how deep-seated and irreconcilable were the differences which 
divided the religious parties in Germany. Robinson, Readings in Euro- 
pean History, vol. ii, chap. xxix. 

Secondary Works. — Gindely, A., History of the Thirty Years' 1 War, 
2 vols. ; the best history for English readers. Chaps, x and xi of vol. ii, 
bearing upon the peace negotiations, are of special interest. Fletcher, 
C. R. L., Gustavus Adolphus and the Struggle of Protestantism for Existence. 
Gardiner, S. R., The Thirty Years' War. Henderson, E. F., A Short 
History of Germany, vol. i, chaps, xvii and xviii. Bryce, J., The Holy Roman 
Evipire, chaps, xviii and xix. Fisher, G. P., History of the Reformation, 
chap, xv, summarizes from the Protestant side the results of the Reforma- 
tion ; Balmes, J., European Civilization ; Protestantism and Catholicism 
compared, and Spaulding, M. J., The History of the Protestant Refor7na- 
tion, Parts I and II, contain discussions of the subject from the Catholic 
point of view. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Articles of the Peace of Augsburg, the 
violation of which caused trouble. 2. Wallenstein. 3. Tilly and the sack 
pf Magdeburg. 4. Pictures of Germany at the end of the war. 



FOURTH PERIOD— THE ERA OF THE 
POLITICAL REVOLUTION 

(From the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, to the Twentieth Century) 

I. THE AGE OF ABSOLUTE MONARCHY: THE PRE- 
LUDE TO THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION 
(1648-1789) 

CHAPTER LXI 

INTRODUCTORY: THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE RIGHT OF 

KINGS AND THE MAXIMS OF THE ENLIGHTENED 

DESPOTS 

793. The Theory of the Divine Right of Kings. — Throughout 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was widely held a 
theory of government which during that period probably had as 
great an influence upon the historical development in Europe 
as the theory of the Empire and the Papacy exerted during the 
Middle Ages. This theory is known as the Divine Right of Kings. 

According to this theory the nation is a great family with the 
king as its divinely appointed head. The duty of the king is to 
govern like a father ; the duty of the people is to obey their 
king even as children obey their parents. If the king does wrong, 
is cruel, unjust, this is simply the misfortune of his people ; under 
no circumstances is it right for them to rebel against his authority, 
any more than for children to rise against their father. The king 
is responsible to God alone, and to God the people, quietly sub- 
missive, must leave the avenging of all their wrongs. 1 

'•Kings are the ministers of God" — it is the eloquent Bos- 
suet, the court chaplain of Louis XIY, who speaks — "and his 

1 All that the people can do when the king misuses his authority is to petition 
him •■ to amend his fault " — and ■• to pray to God." 

564 



THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS 565 

vicegerents on the earth." " The throne of a king is not the throne 
of a man, but the throne of God himself. . . . The person of 
kings is sacred, and it is sacrilege to harm them." " They are 
gods, and partake in some fashion of the divine independence." 2 

Before the close of the period upon which we here enter we 
shall see how this theory of the divine right of kings worked out 
in practice, — how dear it cost both kings and people, and how 
the people by the strong logic of revolution demonstrated that 
they have a divine and inalienable right to govern themselves. 8 

794. History of the Doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings. — 
This theory that kings rule by divine right has a history well 
worth tracing. Among primitive peoples, like the early Greeks, 
we find the king ruling by divine right, — by right of his descent 
from the gods. In Egypt the Pharaoh was regarded as partaking 
of the divine nature. In ancient Judea the king was the Lord's 
anointed, and ruled as his vicegerent on earth. In the days of 
the Roman emperors their subjects, especially in the East, were 
prone to regard the head of the Empire as set apart from ordinary 
men. They built temples in honor of " the divine Caesar." 

But to trace the origin of the doctrine as applied to kings of 
modern times, we need not go farther back than to the establish- 
ment of the mediaeval Papacy. The popes, as we have learned, 
ruled by what may be termed divine right. All acknowledged 
their office and authority to be of divine origin and appointment. 
But when the emperors of German origin got into controversy 
with the popes in regard to the relation of the imperial to the 
papal power, then it was that the supporters of the emperors 
framed the counter-theory of the divine origin of the imperial 

2 See Psalms lxxxii. 6. 

3 There was much in the history of the Middle Ages to convince men that abso- 
lute monarchy, if not a divinely appointed form of government, was at least the best 
form. Every other form had been tried and found wanting, having issued either in 
tyranny or in anarchy. Witness the intolerable oppression of the aristocratic govern- 
ment of the feudal lords ; witness the tyranny of the theocratic government of the 
priesthood ; witness the turbulence of society under the democratic regime of the Italian 
cities. Peace and security within the state had been secured only through the growth 
of the royal power. Hence the political axiom of this age, an age just escaping 
from feudal anarchy, was that of the Homeric Greeks, — " The rule of many is not 
a good thing; let there be one leader only, one king." 



566 DIVINE-RIGHT KINGSHIP 

authority. Thus Dante in his De Monarchia maintains that 
the Emperor rules as much by divine right as does the Pope. 
Then later in the fourteenth century, after the Empire had been 
practically destroyed by the Papacy and the kings had taken up 
the fight against the papal see, their supporters naturally began 
to preach the doctrine of the divine nature of the royal authority. 
This was the starting point of the theory in its modern form. 

When finally the Reformation came and with it even still 
keener strife between the lay rulers of the revolted nations and 
the Roman see, then the theory of the divine nature of the royal 
power received perforce a great expansion. For when the Pope 
excommunicated a heretic king and exhorted his subjects to take 
up arms against him, then the royalist writers and preachers pro- 
claimed more loudly than ever the doctrine of the divine right 
of princes and the wickedness of disobedience and rebellion. 
Fostered in this way, the doctrine of the sacred character of 
kingship and the virtue of passive obedience in the subject struck 
deep and firm root. 

795. Character of the Absolute Sovereigns and their Relation 
to the Democratic Revolution. — What use did the kings make 
of their vast and unlimited authority ? As a class they made a 
betrayal of the great trust. Too many of them acted upon the 
maxim of Louis XIV of France, — " Self-aggrandizement is at once 
the noblest and the most agreeable occupation of kings." They 
seemed to think that their subjects were made for their use and 
that their kingdoms were their personal property. War became 
a royal pastime. A great part of the bloody wars of the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries, which centuries may be regarded 
as covering roughly the age of absolute monarchy, were wars that 
originated in frivolous personal jealousies, in wicked royal ambi- 
tions, or in disputes respecting dynastic succession. So generally 
did the wars of this period spring from questions of the latter 
nature, that by some historians the age is called the Era of 
Dynastic Wars. 4 

4 There is need of caution here, however. Not all the wars of this age were frivo- 
lous, artificial, or personal. There were, as we shall see, wars involving great issues 



THE ENLIGHTENED DESPOTS 567 

Now all this misuse of royal power, all these unholy wars with 
their trains of attendant evils, did much to discredit divine-right 
kingship and to bring in government by the people. " Bad kings 
help us," Emerson affirms, " if only they are bad enough." Many 
of the kings of this period were bad enough to be supremely 
helpful. It was during this age of the kings that the forces set 
loose by the Renaissance and the Reformation engendered the 
tempest which overwhelmed forever divine-right kingship and its 
gilded appendage of privileged aristocracy. 

796. The Enlightened Despots. — But not all the kings of this 
age were imbecile or wicked. There were among them many wise 
and benevolent rulers. Especially during the latter part of the 
eighteenth century did there appear monarchs known as the 
Enlightened Despots, who, under the influence of the teachings 
of French philosophy, came to entertain reasonable views of their 
duties and of their obligations to their subjects. 

These sovereigns did not give up the idea that unlimited mon- 
archy is the best form of government and that the people should 
have no part in public affairs. They sincerely believed that the 
power of the king should be unlimited, but they emphasized the 
doctrine that this power should be exercised solely in the interest 
of the people. Thus the idea of the royal power being a trust, 
the royal office a stewardship, was made prominent. The king 
became the servant of his people. 

The great place which the rulers of this disposition held in the 
history of the century immediately preceding the French Revo- 
lution is indicated by these words of the historian Professor 
H. Morse Stephens : "The most characteristic feature in govern- 
ment of the eighteenth century," he says, " was the existence and 
the work of the Enlightened Despots." 

and principles, — questions of systems of government and forms of civilization. The 
war in England between the Parliament and the king was the first act in the drama 
of the Political Revolution; and the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) was a struggle 
involving as momentous questions as were ever arbitrated by the sword. Commercial 
and colonial interests too were coming to be more generally the concern of govern- 
ments, and some of the greatest wars of the eighteenth century had their origin in 
national jealousies touching trade and colonies. 



568 DIVINE-RIGHT KINGSHIP 

Prominent among the sovereigns deemed worthy a place among 
the Enlightened Despots are Catherine the Great of Russia and 
Frederick the Great of Prussia. Concerning them and their work 
we shall have something to say in the following chapters. It will 
suffice here if we simply observe that the issue of this great 
experiment in government illustrated anew what had been demon- 
strated by the rule of the Tyrants in the cities of ancient Greece, 
and by that of the Caesars at Rome, — namely, that absolute power 
cannot safely be lodged in the hands of a single person. It is 
certain sooner or later to be misused. 

As it has been well put, absolute power in a single person is a 
good thing when joined with perfect wisdom and perfect good- 
ness. But unfortunately these qualifications of the ideal autocrat 
are seldom found united in the same individual, and still less 
seldom are they transmitted from father to son. It is at just this 
point that absolute hereditary monarchy, as a practical form of 
government, breaks down beyond hope and without remedy. 

Selections from the Sources. — Filmer, Patriarcha. This work, which 
was first published in 1680, is' the classical English treatise in exposition 
and defense of divine-right kingship. For a short selection from King 
James, Law of Free Monarchies, see Lee, Source-Book, pp. 337, 338. 

Secondary Works. — Figgis, J. N., The Theory of the Divine Right of 
Kings ; an able and interesting discussion of the subject. Gairdner, J., 
and Spedding, J., Studies in English History ; contains a valuable essay 
entitled, " The Divine Right of Kings : History of the Doctrine." This 
essay is a reprint of an article by Dr. Gairdner in The Contemporary Review 
for September, 1869. Stephens, H. Morse, Syllabus of Lectures on Modern 
European History, Lect. li, " The Enlightened Despots " ; suggests impor- 
tant viewpoints. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Dante's argument in his De Monarchia 
for the supernatural character of the imperial office. - 2. The reforms of 
the Enlightened Despots. See Stephens. 



CHAPTER LXII 

THE ASCENDANCY OF FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV 

(i 643-1 7 is) 

797. Louis XIV as the Typical Divine-Right King. — Louis XIV 
of France stands as the representative of divine-right monarchy. 
He shall himself expound to us his conception of government. 1 
These are his words : " Kings are absolute lords ; to them belongs 
naturally the full and free disposal of all the property of their 
subjects, whether they be churchmen or laymen." "For subjects 
to rise against their prince, however wicked and oppressive he 
may be, is always infinitely criminal. God, who has given kings 
to men, has willed that they should be revered as his lieutenants, 
and has reserved to himself alone the right to review their 
conduct. His will is that he who is born a subject should obey 
without question." 

The doctrine here set forth Louis is said to have expressed in 
this terser form: L Etat c'est mot (I am the State). He may 
never have uttered these exact words, but the famous epigram at 
least embodies perfectly his ideas of kingship. In his own view 
he was by divine commission the sole legislator, judge, and execu- 
tive of the French nation. 

This theory of government was indeed, as we have seen, no 
novel doctrine to the Europe of the seventeenth century; but 
Louis was such an ideal autocrat that somehow he made autocratic 
government attractive. Other rulers imitated him, and it became 
the prevailing theory that kings have a " divine right " to rule, and 
that the people should have no part at all in government. 

1 It should be noted that Louis' subjects, at least the great majority of them, also 
believed in government by one, — and not without reason. They had had sorry experi- 
ence with government by many, under the regime of the nobles. Of government by 
all, by themselves, it was not possible for them to have any clear conception, if any 
conception at all. It needed a hundred years and more of autocratic misrule and 
oppression to call into existence that revolutionary idea. 

569 



57° 



FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV 



798. The Administration of Mazarin (1643-166 1). — The 
religious war in Germany was still in progress when, in 1643, 
Louis XIII died, leaving the vast authority which his great min- 
ister Cardinal Richelieu had done so much to consolidate, as an 
inheritance to his little son Louis, a child of five years. 

During the prince's minority the government was in the hands 
of his mother, Anne of Austria, as regent. She chose as her chief 

minister an Italian ecclesi- 
astic, Cardinal Mazarin, who 
in his administration of 
affairs followed in the foot- 
steps of his predecessor, 
Richelieu, carrying out with 
great ability the policy of 
that minister (sec. 784). 
Before his death the House 
of Austria in both its branches 
had been humiliated and 
crippled, and the House of 
Bourbon was ready to assume 
the lead in European affairs. 
799. Louis XIV becomes 
his Own Prime Minister. — 
Mazarin died in 1 66 1 . Upon 
this event Louis, now twenty- 
three years of age, calling 
together the heads of the 
various departments of the 
government, said to them that in the future he should himself 
attend to affairs. He then charged the secretaries not to sign 
any paper, not even a passport, without his express commands. 

From this time on for more than half a century Louis was his 
own prime minister. He gave personal attention to every matter, 
even the most trivial. Probably no wearer of a crown, Philip II 
of Spain possibly excepted, ever worked harder at " the trade of 
a king," as he himself designated his employment. He had able 




Fig. 139. — Louis XIV. After a paint- 
ing by Philippe de Champagne) 



THE WARS OF LOUIS XIV 57 1 

men about him, but they planned and worked — and sometimes 
chafed — under his minute directions and tireless superintendence. 

800. The Wars of Louis XIV. — During the period of his per- 
sonal administration of the government Louis XIV was engaged 
in four great wars : (1) a war respecting the Spanish Netherlands 
(1667-1668); (2) a war with the Protestant Netherlands (1672- 
1678); (3) the War of the Palatinate, or of the League of Augs- 
burg (1688-1697); and (4) the War of the Spanish Succession 
(1701-1714). All these wars were, on the part of the French 
monarch, wars of conquest and aggression, or wars provoked by 
his ambitious and encroaching policy. The most inveterate enemy 
of Louis during all this period was the Dutch Republic, the rep- 
resentative and champion of liberty. 

801. The War concerning the Spanish Netherlands (1667- 
1668). — Upon the death in 1665 of Philip IV of Spain, Louis 
laid claim, in the name of his wife, to portions of the Spanish 
Netherlands and led an army into the country. The Hollanders 
were naturally alarmed, fearing that Louis would also want to 
annex their country to his dominions. Accordingly they effected 
what was called the Triple Alliance with England and Sweden, 
checked the French king in his career of conquest, and, by the 
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668, forced him to give up much 
of the territory he had seized. 

802. The War with the Protestant Netherlands (1672-1678). 
— The second war of the French king was against the United 
Netherlands. His attack upon this little state was prompted by 
a variety of motives. In the first place, the Hollanders' interven- 
tion in the preceding war had stirred his resentment. Then these 
Dutchmen represented everything to which he was opposed, — 
self-government, Protestantism, and free thought. 

In this war Louis found himself confronted by the armies of 
half of Europe. For several years the struggle was waged on land 
and sea, — in the Netherlands, all along the Rhine, upon the Eng- 
lish Channel, in the Mediterranean, and on the coasts of the New 
World. Finally an end was put to the war by the Peace of 
Nimeguen (1678). Louis gave up his conquests in Holland, but 



572 FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV 

kept a large number of towns and fortresses in the Spanish 
Netherlands, besides the free county of Burgundy (Franche- 
Comt6) on his eastern frontier. Thus Louis came out of this 
tremendous struggle with enhanced reputation and fresh acqui- 
sitions of territory. People now began to call him the Grand- 
Monarch. 

803. Louis seizes the City of Strasburg (1681). — Ten years 
of comparative peace now followed for Western Europe. Among 
the many indefensible acts of Louis during this period there were 
two which deserve special notice, since, while marking the culmi- 
nation of Louis' power and illustrating his arrogant and unjust 
use of that power, they also mark the turning point in his for- 
tunes. The first of these was the seizure of the free city of Stras- 
burg and a score of other important places on the left bank of 
the Rhine, belonging to the Empire. Strasburg was of supreme 
military importance to Louis on account of her strong fortifica- 
tions, which rendered her mistress of the Rhine. 

804. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685). — The 
second act to which we refer was the revocation of the Edict 
of Nantes, the gracious decree by which Henry IV guaranteed 
religious freedom to the French Protestants (sec. 780). By this 
cruel measure all the Protestant churches were closed, and every 
Huguenot who refused to embrace the Catholic faith was out- 
lawed. The persecution which the Huguenots had been enduring, 
and which was now greatly increased in violence, is known as the 
Dragonnades, from the circumstance that dragoojis were quartered 
upon the Protestant families, with full permission to annoy and 
persecute them in every way " short of violation and death," to 
the end that the victims of these outrages might be constrained 
to recant, which multitudes did. 

Under the fierce persecutions of the Dragonnades probably 
as many as three hundred thousand of the most skillful and indus- 
trious of the subjects of Louis were driven out of the kingdom. 
The effects upon France of this exodus were most disastrous. 
Several of the most important and flourishing of the French in- 
dustries were ruined, while the manufacturing interests of other 



THE WAR OF THE PALATINATE 573 

countries, particularly those of the Protestant Netherlands, England, 
and Brandenburg, were correspondingly benefited by the energy, 
skill, and capital which the exiles carried to them. Many of the 
fugitive Huguenots sought refuge in America ; and no other class 
of emigrants, save the Puritans of England, cast 

Such healthful leaven 'mid the elements 
That peopled the new world. 2 

805. The War of the Palatinate, or of the League of Augsburg 

(1688-1697). — The indirect results of the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes were quite as calamitous to France as were the 
direct results. The indignation that the measure awakened among 
the Protestant nations contributed to enable William III of the 
United Netherlands to organize a formidable confederacy against 
Louis, known as the League of Augsburg (1686). 

Louis resolved to attack the confederates. Seeking a pretext for 
beginning hostilities, he laid claim to properties in the Palatinate, 
and hurried a large army into the country, which was quickly 
overrun. But being unable to hold the conquests he had made, 
Louis ordered that the country be laid waste. Among the places 
reduced to ruins were the historic towns of Heidelberg, Spires, 
and Worms. Even fruit trees, vines, and crops were destroyed. 
Upwards of a hundred thousand peasants were rendered homeless. 

Another and more formidable coalition, known as the Grand 
Alliance, . was now formed against Louis (1689). It embraced 
England, Holland, Sweden, Spain, Savoy, the Emperor, and several 
of the German princes. For ten years Europe was a great battle- 
field. It was very much such a struggle as that waged a century 
later by the allied monarchies of Europe against Napoleon, when 
they fought for the independence of the continent. 

Both sides at length becoming weary of the contest and almost 
exhausted in resources, the struggle was closed by the Peace of 
Ryswick (1697). There was a mutual surrender of conquests 
made during the war, and Louis had also to give up many of the 
places he had seized before the beginning of the conflict. 

2 See Baird, History of the Huguenot Emigration to America. 



574 FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV 

806. "War of the Spanish Succession (1 701-17 14). — Barely 
three years had passed after the Peace of Ryswick before the 
great powers of Europe were involved in another war, known as 
the War of the Spanish Succession. 

The proximate circumstances out of which this war grew were 
these. In 1 700 the king of Spain, Charles II, the last male descend- 
ant in Spain of the great Emperor Charles V, died, leaving his 
crown — the disposition of which had been made a matter of end- 
less discussion and infinite intrigue, for Charles was childless — 
to Philip, Duke of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV. The duke, 
a mere lad of seventeen years, assumed the bequeathed crown 
with the title of Philip V, and thus became the founder of the 
Bourbon dynasty in Spain. " There are no longer any Pyrenees," 
is the way in which Louis is reported to have expressed his exul- 
tation over this virtual union of France and Spain. 

The common danger led to the forming of a second Grand 
Alliance 3 against France, a main object of which was to eject 
Philip from the Spanish throne and to seat thereon Archduke 
Charles of Austria, the second son of the Emperor Leopold I. 
The two greatest generals of the allies were the Duke of Marl- 
borough (John Churchill), the ablest commander, except Welling- 
ton perhaps, that England has ever produced, and Prince Eugene 
of Savoy, who was in the imperial service. 

For thirteen years all Europe was shaken with war. During the 
progress of the struggle were fought some of the most memorable 
battles in European history, — Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, 
and Malplaquet, — in all of which the genius of Marlborough 
and the consummate skill of Prince Eugene won decisive victories 
for the allies. 

In the year 17 11, a vacancy having occurred in the imperial 
office, Archduke Charles was elected Emperor. This changed the 
whole aspect of the Spanish question, for now to place Charles 
upon the Spanish throne would be to give him a dangerous pre- 
ponderance of power ; would be, in fact, to reestablish the great 

3 The alliance embraced at first England, the Protestant Netherlands, Austria, 
and other German states, and later was joined by Portugal and Savoy. 



DEATH OF THE KING 575 

monarchy of Charles V. Consequently the Grand Alliance, 
already weakened from other causes, fell to pieces, and the war 
was ended by the treaties of Utrecht (17 13) and Rastadt (1714). 
By the provisions of these treaties the Bourbon prince, Philip 
of Anjou, was left upon the Spanish throne, but on the condition 
that there should never be a union of the French and Spanish 
crowns upon the same head. His dominions also were pared 
away on every side. Gibraltar and the island of Minorca were 
ceded to England ; Milan, Naples, the island of Sardinia, and the 
Catholic Netherlands were given to Austria ; and Sicily to the 
Duke of Savoy. Spain was thus shorn of nearly half her territories 
in Europe. France also suffered in her colonial possessions and 
claims, being forced to cede Nova Scotia (Acadia) to England 
and to admit the sovereignty of that country over Newfoundland 
and the Hudson Bay Territory. 

807. Death of the King (17 15). — It was amidst troubles, per- 
plexities, and afflictions that Louis XIV's long and eventful reign 
drew to a close. The heavy and constant taxes necessary to meet 
the expenses of his numerous wars and to maintain an extravagant 
court had bankrupted the country, and the cries of his wretched 
subjects, clamoring for bread, could not be shut out of the royal 
chamber. Death, too, had invaded the palace, striking down the 
Dauphin and also two grandsons of Louis, leaving as the nearest 
heir to the throne his great-grandson, a mere child. On the 
morning of Sept. 1 , 1 7 1 5 , the Grand Monarch breathed his last, 
bequeathing to this boy of five years a kingdom burdened with 
debt and filled with misery and dangerous discontent. 

808. The Court of Louis XIV. — The court of the Grand Mon- 
arch was the most extravagantly magnificent that Europe has 
ever seen. Never since Nero spread his Golden House over the 
burnt district of Rome and ensconcing himself amid its luxurious 
appointments exclaimed, " Now I am housed as a man ought to 
be," had prince or king so ostentatiously lavished upon himself the 
wealth of an empire. Louis had hah a dozen palaces, the most 
costly of which was that at Versailles. Here he created, in what 
was originally a desert, a beautiful miniature universe of which 



576 FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV 

he was the center, the resplendent sun — he chose the sun as his 
emblem — around which all revolved and from which all received 
light and life. And here were gathered the beauty, wit, and learn- 
ing of France. The royal household numbered over fifteen thou- 
sand persons, all living in luxurious idleness at the expense of the 
people. One element of this enormous family was the great lords 
of the old feudal aristocracy. Dispossessed of their ancient power 
and wealth, they were content now to fill a place in the royal 
household, — to be the king's pensioners and the elegant embel- 
lishment of his court. 

As can easily be imagined, the court life of this period was 
shamefully corrupt. Vice, however, was gilded. The most scandal- 
ous immoralities were made attractive by the glitter of superficial 
accomplishment and by exquisite suavity and polish of manner. 
But, notwithstanding its insincerity and immorality, the brilliancy 
of the court of Louis dazzled all Europe. The neighboring courts 
imitated its manners and emulated its extravagances. In all mat- 
ters of taste and fashion France gave laws to the continent, and 
the French language became the court language of the civilized 
world. 

809. Literature under Louis XIV. — Although Louis himself 
was not much of a scholar, he gave a most liberal encouragement 
to men of letters, thereby making his reign the Augustan Age of 
French literature. In this patronage Louis was not unselfish. He 
honored and befriended poets and writers of every class, because 
thus he extended the reputation of his court. These writers, pen- 
sioners of his bounty, filled all Europe with praises of the great 
king, and thus made the most ample and grateful return to Louis 
for his favor and liberality. 

Almost every species of literature was cultivated by the French 
writers of this era, yet it was in the province of the drama that 
the most eminent names appeared. The three great names here 
are those of Corneille (1606-1684), Racine (1639-1699), and 
Moliere 4 (1622— 1673). 

4 Among other world-renowned French writers, philosophers, prelates, and orators 
who adorned the age of Louis XIV were Descartes (1596-1650), the Father of Modern 



DECLINE OF THE MONARCHY 



577 



810. Relation of the Reign of Louis XIV to the Revolution of 
1789. — "If it be asked," says the historian Von Hoist, "who 
did the most towards the destruction of the ancient regime, the 
correct answer is, beyond all question, Louis XIV, its greatest 
representative." Louis discredited absolute monarchy by his 
shameful misuse of his unlimited power. His many wars and his 
extravagant expenditures on an idle and profligate court weighed 
France down with crushing and intolerable burdens. It was the 
vast mass of misery and suffering created by his acting on the 
monstrous doctrine that " the many are made for the use of one," 
that did much to prepare the minds and hearts of the French 
people for the great Revolution. 

811. Decline of the French Monarchy under Louis XV (1715- 
1774). — The supremacy of the House of Bourbon passed away 
forever with Louis XIV. In passing from the reign of the Grand 
Monarch to that of his successor we pass from the strongest and 
outwardly most brilliant reign in French history to the weakest 
and most humiliating. Louis XV was a despot without possess- 
ing any of the possible virtues of a despot. During his reign the 
French nation made a swift descent towards the abyss of the 
Revolution of 1789. 

For the first eight years of the reign affairs were in the hands 
of the Duke of Orleans, who was regent during the king's minor- 
ity. He was a corrupt man, a man absolutely shameless in his 
vices. Probably Rome in the days of the worst Csesars witnessed 
nothing in the way of reckless and riotous living to surpass what 
France witnessed under what is known as the Regency. 

In 1723 the prince's minority ended and he assumed the gov- 
ernment. The atmosphere in which he had been brought up 
had wholly corrupted a nature seemingly prone to evil. He was 

Philosophy; Pascal (1623-1662), the prodigy in mathematics and the author of the 
famous Provincial Letters ; La Bruyere (1645-1696), novelist and unrivaled depicter 
of character and manners ; Madame de Sevigne' (1626-1696), the brilliant letter writer, 
whose correspondence forms to-day a prized portion of French literature and con- 
stitutes a treasure of information for the court historian; Bossuet (1627-1704), the 
eloquent court preacher and champion of divine-right kingship ; and Fenelon (1651- 
171 5), the distinguished prelate and author of The Adventures of Telemachus, a dis- 
guised satire on the reign of Louis XIV. 



578 FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV 

completely under the influence of his mistresses, of whom the most 
notorious was Madame de Pompadour. The loves, the hates, and 
the caprices of this woman were for nineteen years a chief factor 
in the decision of the weightiest matters of war and of peace. 
The highest appointments in the army and the navy were dictated 
by her. For a long series of years she was practically the prime 
minister of France. 

The conditions surrounding the throne being of this nature, it 
is not surprising that under Louis XV the influence, power, and 
prestige of France sensibly declined. She took part, indeed, but 
usually with injury to her military reputation, in all the wars of 
this period. The most important of these for France was the 
Seven Years' War (i 756-1 763), known in America as the French 
and Indian War, which resulted in the loss to France of Canada 
in the New World and of her Indian empire in the Old. 

Selections from the Sources. — Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon 
(trans, by Bayle St. John). Nowhere else can be found so lively and enter- 
taining an account of life at court under Louis XIV and the Regency as 
here. For glimpses of other sides of the life of the times read the Letters 
of Madame de Sevigne, accessible in different editions. These delightful 
letters cover the last half of the seventeenth century. Robinson, Readings 
in European History, vol. ii, chap. xxxi. 

Secondary Works. — For a comprehensive view of this period there is 
nothing superior to The Age of Louis XIV, 2 vols., and The Decline of the 
French Monarchy, 2 vols., — translations by Mary L. Booth of the corre- 
sponding parts of Henri Martin's Histoire de France. Wakeman, H. O., 
Europe, 1398-1715, chaps, vi, vii, and ix-xv. Kitchin, G. W., A History 
of France, vol. iii. Hassall, A., The French People, chaps, xii-xiv; and 
Louis XIV and the Zenith of the French Monarchy. Perkins, J. B., France 
under Mazarin, vol. ii ; France under the Regency ; and France under 
Louis XV, 2 vols. These are all scholarly works of marked merit. Wil- 
liams, H. N., Madame de Pompadour. For the history of the French in 
America during the age of Louis XIV, the reader will have recourse to 
FlSKE, J., New England and New France, chap, iv ; and to Parkman, F., 
Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The Parliament of Paris. 2. Colbert. 
3. New France under Louis XIV. 4. The Palace at Versailles. 5. Life at 
the court. 6. John Law and the Mississippi Bubble. 



CHAPTER LXIII 

THE STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 

(1603-1689) 

I. The First Two Stuarts 
Reign of James the First (1603—1625) 

812. James' Idea of Kingship. — With the end of the Tudor 
line (sec. 755), James VI of Scotland, son of Mary Stuart, came 
to the English throne as James I of England. The accession of the 
House of Stuart brought England and Scotland under the same 
sovereign, but each country still retained its own legislature. 

James, like the other Stuarts who followed him on the English 
throne, was a firm believer in the doctrine of the divine right of 
kings. He held that hereditary princes are the Lord's anointed, 
and that their authority can in no way be questioned or limited 
by people, priest, or Parliament. These are his own words : "It 
is atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can do : good 
Christians content themselves with his will revealed in his word ; 
so it is presumption and high contempt in a subject to dispute 
what a king can do, or say that a king cannot do this or that." 

813. Contest between James and the Commons ; the Great Pro- 
testation. — But the Commons of the English Parliament, and 
probably the majority of the English people, differed with their 
Stuart kings in their views concerning the nature of government, 
and particularly concerning the tiature of the English govern- 
ment. In this difference of views lay hidden, as we shall learn, 
the germs of the Civil War and of all that grew out of it, — the 
Commonwealth, the Protectorate, and the Revolution of 1688. 

The chief matters of dispute between the king and the Com- 
mons were the limits of the authority of the former in matters 
touching legislation and taxation, and the nature and extent of the 

579 



580 STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 

privileges of the latter. As to the limits of the royal power, James 
acted as though his prerogatives were practically unbounded. He 
issued proclamations which in their scope were really laws, arid 
then enforced these edicts by fines and imprisonment, as though 
they were regular statutes of Parliament. Moreover, taking advan- 
tage of some uncertainty in the law as regards the power of the 
king to collect customs at the ports of the realm, he laid new and 
unusual duties upon imports and exports. James' judges were 
servile enough to sustain him in this course, some of them going 
so far as to say in effect that " the seaports are the king's gates, 
which he may open and shut to whom he pleases." 

As to the privileges of the Commons, that body insisted, among 
other things, upon their right to determine all cases of contested 
election of their members, and to debate freely all questions con- 
cerning the common weal, without being liable to prosecution or 
imprisonment for words spoken in the House. James denied that 
these privileges were matters of right pertaining to the Commons, 
and repeatedly intimated to them that it was only through his 
own gracious permission and the favor of his ancestors that they 
were allowed to exercise these liberties at all, and that if their 
conduct was not more circumspect and reverential he should take 
away their privileges entirely. 

On one occasion, the Commons having ventured in debate upon 
certain matters of state which the king had forbidden them to 
meddle with, he, in reproving them, made a more express denial 
than ever of their rights and privileges, which caused them, in a 
burst of noble indignation, to spread Upon their journal a brave 
protest, known as "The Great Protestation," which declared that 
"the liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions of Parliament 
are the ancient and undoubted birthright and inheritance of the 
subjects of England, and that the arduous and urgent affairs con- 
cerning the king, state, and defense of the realm and the Church 
of England . . . are proper subjects and matter of council and 
debate in Parliament" (162 1). 

When intelligence of this action was carried to the king he 
angrily adjourned Parliament, sent for the journal of the House, 



COLONIES AND TRADE SETTLEMENTS 581 

and with his own hand struck out the obnoxious resolution. 
Then he dissolved Parliament, and even went so far as to imprison 
several of the members of the Commons. In these high-handed 
measures we get a glimpse of the Stuart theory of government, 
and see the way paved for the final break between king and 
people in the following reign. 

814. Colonies and Trade Settlements. — The reign of James I 
is signalized by the commencement of that system of colonization 
which has resulted in the establishment of the English race in 
almost every quarter of the globe. In the year 1607 Jamestown, 
so named in honor of the king, was founded in Virginia. This 
was the first permanent English settlement within the limits of 
the United States. In 1620 some Separatists, or Pilgrims, who 
had found in Holland a temporary refuge from persecution, pushed 
across the Atlantic and, amidst heroic sufferings and unparalleled 
hardships, established the first settlement in New England and 
laid the foundations of civil liberty in the New World. 

During this same reign the English also established themselves 
in the ancient land of India. In 161 3 the East India Company 
established their first factory at Surat. This was the humble 
beginning of the great English Empire in the East. 

815. Literature. — One of the most noteworthy literary labors 
of the reign under review was a new translation of the Bible, known 
as King James 1 Version, published in 16 11. This version is the 
one in general use in the Protestant Church at the present day. 

The most noted writers of James' reign were a bequest to it 
from the brilliant era of Elizabeth (sec. 756). Sir Walter Raleigh, 
the petted courtier of Elizabeth, fell on evil days after her death. 
On the charge of taking part in a conspiracy against the crown, 
he was sent to the Tower, where he was kept a prisoner for thir- 
teen years. From the tedium of his long confinement he found 
relief in the composition of a History of the World. He was at 
last beheaded (16 18). 

The close of the life of the great philosopher Francis Bacon 
was scarcely less sad than that of Sir Walter Raleigh. He held 
the office of Lord Chancellor, and, yielding to the temptations of 



582 STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 

the corrupt times upon which he had fallen, accepted fees from the 
suitors who brought cases before him. He was impeached, and 
was sentenced by the House of Lords to pay a heavy fine and 
to imprisonment in the Tower. But the king in pity released him 
from all the penalty and even conferred a pension upon him. He 
lived only five years after his fall and disgrace, dying in 1626. 

Bacon must be given the first place among the philosophers of 
the English-speaking race. His system is known as the " Induct- 
ive Method of Philosophy." It insists upon experiment and a 
careful observation of facts as the only true means of arriving at 
a knowledge of the laws of nature. 

Reign of Charles the First (1625— 164Q) 

816. The Petition of Right (1628). — Charles I came to the 
throne with all his father's lofty notions about the divine right of 
kings. He made his own these words of Scripture : " Where the 
word of a king is, there is power : and who may say unto him, 
What doest thou? " x Consequently the old contest between king 
and Parliament was straightway renewed. The first two Parlia- 
ments of his reign Charles dissolved speedily, because instead of 
voting supplies they persisted in investigating public grievances. 

After the dissolution of his second Parliament, Charles endeav- 
ored to raise by means of benevolences (sec. 731) and forced loans 
the money he needed to carry on the government. But all his 
expedients failed to meet his needs, and he was forced to fall back 
upon Parliament. The Houses met and promised to grant him 
generous subsidies, provided he would approve a certain Petition 
of Right which they had drawn up. Next after Magna Carta 
this document is the most important in the constitutional history 
of England. Four abuses were provided against : (1) the raising of 
money by loans, benevolences, taxes, etc., without the consent 
of Parliament ; (2) imprisonment without cause shown ; (3) the 
quartering of soldiers in private houses, — a very vexatious thing ; 
and (4) trial by martial law, that is, without jury. 

1 Ecclesiastes viii. 4 ; cited by Charles on his trial in 1649. 



CHARLES RULES WITHOUT PARLIAMENT 583 



Charles was as reluctant to assent to the petition as King John 
was to assent to Magna Carta ; but he was at length forced to 
give sanction to it by the use of the usual formula, " Let it be law 
as desired " (1628). 

817. Charles rules without Parliament (162 9-1 640). — It soon 
became evident that Charles was utterly insincere when he gave 
his assent to the Petition of Right. 
He immediately violated its provi- 
sions in attempting to raise money 
by forbidden taxes and loans. For 
eleven years he ruled without Parlia- 
ment, thus changing the government 
of England from a government by 
king, Lords, and Commons to what 
was in effect an absolute and irre- 
sponsible monarchy, like that of 
France or of Spain. 

Prominent among Charles' most 
active agents were his ministers, 
Thomas Wentworth, later Earl of 
Strafford, and William Laud, Bishop 
of London and later Archbishop of 
Canterbury, both of whom earned 
unenviable reputations through their 
industry and success in building up 
the absolute power of their master 
upon the ruins of the ancient insti- 
tutions of English liberty. 2 

818. John Hampden and Ship 
Money (1637-1638). — Among the 
illegal taxes levied during this period 
of tyranny was a species known as "ship money," so called from 
the fact that in early times the kings, when the realm was in 

2 The high-handed and tyrannical proceedings of Charles and his agents were 
enforced by three iniquitous courts of usurped and arbitrary jurisdiction. These 
were known as the "Council of the North," the "Star Chamber," and the "High 




Fig. 140. — Charles I. (After 
a painting by Vandyke) 



584 STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 

danger, called upon the seaports and maritime counties to contrib- 
ute ships and ship material for the public service. Charles and 
his agents, in looking this matter over, conceived the idea of 
extending this tax over the inland as well as the seaboard 
counties. 

Among those who refused to pay the tax was a country gentle- 
man named John Hampden. The case was tried in the Court of 
Exchequer, before all the twelve judges. Judgment was finally 
rendered in favor of the king, although five of the twelve 
judges stood for Hampden. The case was lost ; but the people, 
who had been following the arguments, were fully persuaded that 
the decision went against Hampden simply for the reason that 
the judges stood in fear of the royal displeasure should they 
dare to decide the case adversely to the crown. 

The arbitrary and despotic character which the government 
had now assumed in both civil and religious matters, and the 
hopelessness of relief or protection from the courts, caused thou- 
sands to seek in the New World that freedom and security 
which was denied them in the home land. 

819. The Bishops' War (1639). — England was ready to rise 
in open revolt. Events in Scotland hastened the crisis. The king 
was attempting to impose the English liturgy (slightly modified) 
upon the Scotch Presbyterians. To the Scotch this seemed little 
short of a restoration of the " Popery" they had renounced. All 
classes, nobles and peasants alike, bound themselves by a solemn 
covenant to resist to the very last every attempt to make innova- 
tions in their religion. 

The king resolved to crush the movement by force, but soon 
found that war could not be carried on without money, and was 
constrained to summon Parliament in hopes of obtaining a vote 
of supplies. Instead of making the king a grant of money, the 
Commons first gave their attention to the matter of grievances, 
whereupon Charles dissolved the Parliament. The Scottish forces 

Commission Court." All of these courts sat without jury, and being composed of 
the creatures of the king, were of course his subservient instruments. Often their 
decisions were unjust and arbitrary, their punishments harsh and cruel. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 585 

crossed the border, and the king, helpless, with an empty treasury 
and a seditious army, was forced again to summon the two Houses. 

820. The Long Parliament. — Under this call met on Nov. 3, 
1640, the Parliament which, from the circumstance of its sitting 
for twelve years, and legally existing for nearly twenty, became 
known as the " Long Parliament." A small majority of the 
members of the Commons of this Parliament were stern and 
determined men, men who fully realized the danger in which the 
traditional liberties of Englishmen were set, and who were resolved 
to put a check to the despotic course of the king. 

Almost the first act of the Commons was the impeachment of 
Strafford, as the most prominent instrument of the king's tyranny. 
He was finally condemned by a bill of attainder 3 and sent to 
the block. 

To secure themselves against dissolution before their work was 
done, the Houses passed a bill which provided that they should 
not be adjourned or dissolved without their own consent. 

821. The Insurrection in Ireland (1641). — The situation was 
critical ; it was rendered still more so by an uprising in Ireland. 
The aim of the insurrection was to wipe out the colony of Eng- 
lish and Scotch settlers in Ulster, planted in the reign of James I, 
and to bring to an end Protestant ascendancy in Ireland. Thou- 
sands of the English and Scotch settlers perished miserably. It 
was not long before an English Protestant army made savage 
reprisals (sec. 831). 

822. Charles' Attempt to seize the Five Members. — An impru- 
dent act on the part of Charles now precipitated the nation into 
the gulf of civil war, towards which events had been so rapidly 
drifting. With the design of overawing the Commons, the king 



3 A bill of attainder is an act passed like an ordinary statute of Parliament. 
Before Thomas Cromwell's time the accused had a right to be heard in his own 
defense. But Cromwell, to please his master Henry, brought it about that Parlia- 
ment could venture to condemn a person without a hearing. It was poetic justice 
that made Cromwell himself a victim of this instrument of tyranny. Because of the 
misuse by the English Parliament of this power, the framers of the Constitution of 
the United States, in enumerating the powers of Congress, inserted this clause : " No 
bill of attainder . . . shall be passed." 



586 STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 

made a charge of treason against five of the leading members, 
among whom were Hampden and Pym, and sent officers to effect 
their arrest; but the accused were not to be found. The next 
day Charles himself, accompanied by armed attendants, went to 
the House for the purpose of seizing the five members; but, 
having been forewarned of the king's intention, they had with- 
drawn from the hall. The king was not long in realizing the state 
of affairs, and with the observation, "I see the birds have flown," 
withdrew from the chamber. 

Charles had taken a fatal step. The nation could not forgive 
the insult offered to its representatives. All London rose in arms. 
The king, frightened by the storm which his rashness had raised, 
fled from the city to York. From the flight of Charles from Lon- 
don may be dated the beginning of the civil war (Jan. 10, 1642). 

The Civil War (1642-164Q) 

823. The Two Parties. — The country was now divided into 
two great parties. Those that enlisted under the king's standard 
— on whose side rallied, for the most part, the nobility, the gen- 
try, and the clergy — were known as Royalists, or Cavaliers ; 
while those that gathered about the Parliamentary banner, the 
townsmen and the yeomanry, were called Parliamentarians, or 
Roundheads, the latter term being applied to them because many 
of their number cropped their hair close to the head, simply for 
the reason that the Cavaliers affected long and flowing locks. 
The Cavaliers favored the Established Episcopal Church, while the 
Roundheads were Puritans. During the progress of the struggle 
the Presbyterians and Independents (later Congregationalists) 
became the leading factions in the Puritan party. 

824. Oliver Cromwell and his "Ironsides." — The war had con- 
tinued about three years when there came into prominence on 
the Parliamentary side a man of destiny, one of the great charac- 
ters of history, — Oliver Cromwell. During the early campaigns of 
the war, as colonel of a troop of cavalry, he had exhibited his rare 
genius as an organizer and disciplinarian. His regiment became 



THE "SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE" 587 

famous under the name of " Cromwell's Ironsides." It was com- 
posed entirely of "men of religion." Swearing, drinking, and 
the usual vices of the camp were unknown among them. They 
advanced to the charge with the singing of psalms. During all 
the war the regiment was never once beaten. 

825. The " Self -Denying Ordinance" and the "New Model" 
(1645). — The military operations of these earlier years of the 
war had revealed fatal defects in the Parliamentary army. One 
was that it was chiefly officered by persons who had received 
their commissions because of their social rank. The leaders in 
the Commons got rid of the titled inefficients by means of a 
measure known as the " Self-Denying Ordinance," which required 
that members of either House holding commands in the army 
should resign within forty days. 

At the same time Parliament created a new army of twenty-one 
thousand men, called the " New Model." This differed from the 
earlier Parliamentary force as a regular army differs from militia. 
Sir Thomas Fairfax was created commander-in-chief, and Crom- 
well was made lieutenant-general, which gave him command of 
the horse. 

Religious opinions had not been made a test for admission to 
the new army ; but as a matter of fact its officers were for the 
most part Independents, and in the course of time the army 
through their influence became such a body of religious enthusi- 
asts as the world had not seen since Godfrey led his crusaders to 
the rescue of the Holy Sepulcher. A great part of the men were 
fervent, God-fearing, psalm-singing Puritans. When not fighting 
they studied the Bible, prayed, and sang hymns. 

826. The Battle of Naseby (1645). — Tne temper of the " New 
Model" was soon tried in the battle of Naseby, the decisive 
engagement of the war. The Royalists were irretrievably beaten. 
Charles escaped from the field, and ultimately fled into Scotland, 
thinking that he might rely upon the loyalty of the Scots to 
the House of Stuart; but on his refusing to sign the Covenant 
and certain other articles, they gave him up to the English 
Parliament. 



588 STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 

827. " Pride's Purge" (1648). — Now there were many in the 
Parliament who were in favor of restoring the king to his throne 
on the basis of conditions which he himself had proposed, that is 
to say, without requiring from him any sufficient guaranties that 
he would in the future rule in accordance with the constitution 
and the laws of the land. The Independents, that is to say Crom- 
well and the army, saw in this possibility the loss of all the fruits 
of victory. A high-handed measure was resolved upon, — the 
exclusion from the House of Commons of all those members 
who favored the restoration of Charles. 

Accordingly an officer by the name of Pride was stationed at 
the door of the hall to exclude or to arrest the members obnoxious 
to the army. One hundred and forty-three members were thus 
kept from their seats, and the Commons became reduced to about 
fifty representatives. This performance was appropriately called 
" Pride's Purge." " The minority had now become the majority." 
But that is not an approved way of creating a majority. 

828. Trial and Execution of the King (Jan. 30, 1649). — The 
Commons thus " purged " of the king's friends now passed a 
resolution for the immediate trial of Charles for treason. A High 
Court of Justice, comprising one hundred and thirty-five members, 
was organized, before which Charles was summoned. Appearing 
before the court, he denied its authority to try him, consistently 
maintaining that no earthly tribunal could rightly question his acts. 
But the trial went on, and before the close of a week he was con- 
demned to be executed " as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public 
enemy to the good people of this nation." 

In a few days the sentence was carried out. Charles bore him- 
self in the presence of death with great composure and dignity. 
On the scaffold he spoke these words, the sincerity of which can- 
not be doubted : " For the people truly I desire their liberty and 
freedom as much as anybody whatsoever ; but I must tell you that 
their liberty and freedom consists in having government ; ... it 
is not in their having a share in the government ; that is nothing 
pertaining to them." 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH 589 

II. The Commonwealth and the Protectorate 
( 1 649-1 660) 

829. Establishment of the Commonwealth. — A few weeks after 
the execution of Charles the Commons voted to abolish the office 
of king as "unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous to the liberty, 
safety, and public interest of the people," and also to do away with 
the House of Lords as likewise "useless and dangerous to the 
people of England," and to establish a free state under the name 
of "The Commonwealth." The executive power was lodged in 
a Council of State, composed of forty-one persons. Of this body 
the eminent patriot Sir Henry Vane .was the leading member. 
He was the real head of the government up to the establishment 
of the Protectorate in 1653. 

830. Troubles of the Commonwealth. — The republic thus born 
of mingled religious and political enthusiasm was beset with dan- 
gers from the very first. The execution of Charles had alarmed 
every sovereign in Europe. Russia, France, and the Dutch Repub- 
lic all refused to have any communication with the ambassadors 
of the Commonwealth. The Scots, who too late repented of 
having surrendered their sovereign into the hands of his enemies, 
now hastened to wipe out the stain of their disloyalty by pro- 
claiming his son their king, with the title of Charles the Second. 
The Royalists in Ireland declared for the prince. In England 
itself the friends of the monarchy were active and threatening. 

831. War with Ireland (1649-1652). — The Commonwealth, 
like the ancient republic of Rome, seemed to gather strength 
and energy from the very multitude of surrounding dangers. 
Cromwell was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and sent into 
that country to crush the Royalist party there. With his " Iron- 
sides " he made quick and terrible work of the suppression of the 
Catholic Royalists. Having taken by storm the town of Drogheda, 
he massacred the entire garrison, consisting of three thousand 
men (1649). The capture of other towns was accompanied by 
massacres little less terrible. The following is his own account 
of the manner in which he dealt with the captured garrisons : 



590 STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 

" When they submitted, their officers were knocked on the head, 
and every tenth man of the soldiers killed, and the rest shipped 
for Barbadoes." Cromwell's savage cruelty in his dealings with the 
Irish is an indelible stain on his memory. 

The Catholic Royalists having been defeated, the best lands 
of the island were confiscated and granted to English and Scotch 
settlers. This method of securing Protestant ascendancy in the 
island is what English history designates as the " Cromwellian 
settlement." The religious ferocity of this Puritan settlement of 
Ireland fanned fiercely the flame of hatred which earlier wrongs 
had kindled in the hearts of the Irish people against their Eng- 
lish conquerors, — a flame which has not yet burned itself out. 4 

832. War with Scotland (1650-1651). — Cromwell was called 
out of Ireland by the Council to lead an army into Scotland. 
At Dunbar he met the Scottish army. Before the terrible onset 
of the fanatic Roundheads the Scots were scattered like chaff 
before the wind. Ten thousand were made prisoners, and all the 
camp train and artillery were captured (1650). 

The following year, on the anniversary of the battle of Dunbar, 
Cromwell gained another great victory over the Scottish army at 
Worcester, and all Scotland was soon after forced to submit to 
the authority of the Commonwealth. 

833. Cromwell ejects the Long Parliament (1653). — The war 
in Scotland was followed by one with the Dutch. While this war 
was in progress Parliament came to an open quarrel with the 
army. Cromwell demanded of Parliament their dissolution, and 
the calling of a new body. This they refused ; whereupon, tak- 
ing with him a body of soldiers, Cromwell went to the House, 
and after listening impatiently for a while to the debate, suddenly 
sprang to his feet and with bitter reproaches exclaimed : "I will 
put an end to your prating. Get you gone ; give place to better 
men. You are no Parliament. The Lord has done with you." 

* Between the years 1641 and 1652 over half a million inhabitants of the island 
were destroyed or banished; Prendergast (Cromwellian Settlement, p. 177) affirms 
that during these years and those immediately following five sixths of the population 
perished. " A man might travel," he says, " for twenty or thirty miles and not see a. 
living creature." 



THE "LITTLE PARLIAMENT" 591 

At a prearranged signal his soldiers rushed in. The hall was 
cleared and the door locked. 

In such summary manner the Long Parliament, or the " Rump 
Parliament," as it was called in derision after " Pride's Purge," was 
dissolved, after having sat for twelve years. So completely had 
the body lost the respect of all parties that scarcely a murmur was 
heard against the illegal and arbitrary mode of its dissolution. 

834. The "Little Parliament" and the Establishment of the 
Protectorate (1653). — Cromwell now called together a new Par- 
liament or more properly a convention, summoning, so far as he 
might, only religious, God-fearing men. The " Little Parliament," 
as sometimes called, consisted of one hundred and fifty-six mem- 
bers, mainly religious zealots, who spent much of their time in 
Scripture exegesis, prayer, and exhortation. Among them was a 
London leather merchant, named Praise-God Barebone, who was 
especially given to these exercises. The name amused the people, 
and as the exhorter was a fair representative of a considerable 
section of the convention, they nicknamed it " Barebone's Parlia- 
ment," by which designation it has passed into history. 

The " Little Parliament " sat only five months, and then, resign- 
ing all its authority into the hands of Cromwell, dissolved itself. 
A sort of constitution, called the "Instrument of Government," 
was now drawn up by a council of army officers and approved 
by Cromwell. This instrument, the first of written constitutions, 
provided for a Parliament consisting of a single House, a Council 
of State, and an executive or president serving for life and bearing 
the title of " Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
Scotland, and Ireland." Under this instrument Cromwell became 
Lord Protector for life. 

835. The Protectorate (1653-1659). — Cromwell's power was 
now almost unlimited. He was virtually a dictator, for he had the 
power of the army behind him. The Protector summoned, win- 
nowed, and dissolved Parliament at pleasure. He could get 
together no body of men who could or would work smoothly with 
him. "The Lord judge between me and you," were his words 
of dismissal to his last unmanageable and obstinate Parliament. 



592 



STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 



For five years Cromwell carried on the government practically 
alone. His rule was arbitrary but enlightened. He gave England 
the strongest government she had had since the days of Wolsey 
and of Elizabeth. His aim was " to make England great and 
to make her worthy of greatness." This worthiness he, zealous 
Puritan as he was, conceived could be acquired by England 

only as her affairs were con- 
ducted by godly men and in 
accord with the plain pre- 
cepts of Scripture. 

Further, in Oliver's mind, 
the English nation could be 
God's own people and worthy 
of greatness only as England 
upheld the Protestant cause 
in Europe. Hence he be- 
came the protector of Protes- 
tantism wherever imperiled. 
He interposed successfully in 
behalf of the Huguenots in 
France, and secured for them 
a respite from harassment ; 
he obliged the Duke of Savoy 
to cease his cruel persecution 
of the Vaudois ; and caused 
the Pope to be informed that 
if the Protestants continued 
to be molested anywhere, — Cromwell laid the blame of every- 
thing done against Protestant interests at the door of the Papacy, 
— the roar of English guns would speedily awaken the echoes of 
St. Angelo. 

836. Cromwell's Death. — Notwithstanding Cromwell was a 
man of immovable resolution and iron spirit, still he felt sorely 
the burdens of his government, and was deeply troubled by the 
anxieties of his position. In the midst of apparent success he was 
painfully conscious of utter failure. He had wished to establish a 




Fig. 141. — Oliver Cromwell. (After 
a portrait by Samuel Cooper) 



RICHARD CROMWELL 593 

constitutional government. Instead, he found himself a military 
usurper, whose title was simply the title of the sword. His govern- 
ment, we may believe, was as hateful to himself as to the great mass 
of the English people. He lived in constant fear of the dagger. 
With his constitution undermined by overwork and anxiety, fever 
attacked him, and with gloomy apprehensions as to the terrible 
dangers into which England might drift after his hand had fallen 
from the helm of affairs, he lay down to die, passing away on the 
day which he had always called his " fortunate day " — the anni- 
versary of his birth, and also of his great victories of Dunbar and 
Worcester (Sept. 3, 1658). 

837. Richard Cromwell (165 8-1 65 9). — Cromwell with his dying 
breath — so it was given out — had designated his son Richard as 
his successor in the office of the Protectorate. Richard was exactly 
the opposite of his father, — timid, irresolute, and irreligious. The 
control of affairs that had taxed to the utmost the genius and 
resources of the father was altogether too great an undertaking for 
the incapacity and inexperience of the son. No one was quicker to 
realize this than Richard himself, and after a rule of a few months, 
yielding to the pressure of the army, he resigned his office. 

838. The Restoration (1660). — For some months after the fall 
of the Protectorate the country trembled on the verge of anarchy. 
The gloomy outlook into the future and the unsatisfactory experi- 
ment of the Commonwealth caused the great mass of the English 
people earnestly to desire the restoration of the monarchy, — in 
truth, the majority of the nation had never desired its abolition. 
Charles Stuart, towards whom the tide of returning loyalty was 
running, was now in Holland. General Monk, the commander of 
the army in Scotland and the representative of Scottish sentiment, 
marched south to London and assumed virtual control of affairs. 
The Long Parliament, including the members ejected by Pride, 
now reassembled, and by resolution declared that " according 
to the ancient and fundamental laws of this kingdom the govern- 
ment is and ought to be by king, Lords, and Commons." An 
invitation was sent to Prince Charles to return to his people and 
take his place upon the throne of his ancestors. 



594 STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 

Amid the wildest demonstrations of joy Charles stepped ashore 
on the island from which he had been for nine years an exile. As 
he observed the extensive preparations made for his reception, and 
received from all parties the warmest congratulations, he remarked 
with pleasant satire, " Surely it is my own fault that I have remained . 
these years in exile from a country which is so glad to see me." 

839. Puritan Literature ; it lights up the Religious Side of the 
English Revolution. — No epoch in history receives a fresher 
illustration from the study of its literature than that of the Puritan 
Revolution. To neglect this, and yet hope to gain a true concep- 
tion of that wonderful episode in the life of the English people 
by an examination of its outer events and incidents alone, would, 
as Green declares, be like trying to form an idea of the life and 
work of ancient Israel from Kings and Chronicles, without Psalms 
and Prophets. The true character of the English Revolution, 
especially upon its religious side, must be sought in the magnifi- 
cent epic of Milton and the unequaled allegory of Bunyan. 

Both of these great works, it is true, were written after the 
Restoration, but they were both inspired by that spirit which had 
struck down despotism and set up the Commonwealth. The epic 
was the work of a lonely, disappointed republican ; the allegory, 
of a captive Puritan. 

Milton (1608-16 74) stands as the grandest representative of 
Puritanism. After the death of Charles I he wrote a famous work 
in Latin entitled The Defense of the English People, in which he 
justified the execution of the king. The Restoration forced him 
into retirement, and the last fourteen years of his life were passed 
apart from the world. It was during these years that, in loneli- 
ness and blindness, he composed the immortal poems Paradise 
Lost and Paradise Regained. The former is the " Epic of Puri- 
tanism." All that was truest and grandest in the Puritan char- 
acter found expression in the moral elevation and religious fervor 
of this the greatest of Christian epics. 

John Bunyan (1628— 1688) was a Puritan nonconformist. After 
the Restoration he was imprisoned for twelve years in Bedford 
jail, on account of nonconformity to the established worship. 



PUNISHMENT OF THE REGICIDES 595 

It was during this dreary confinement that he wrote his Pilgrim's 
Progress, the most admirable allegory in English literature. The 
habit of the Puritan, from constant study of the Bible, to employ 
in all forms of discourse its language and imagery, is best illus- 
trated in the pages of this remarkable work. Here, as nowhere 
else, we learn what realities to the Puritan were the Bible repre- 
sentations of sin, repentance, and atonement, of heaven and hell. 

III. The Restored Stuarts 
Reign of Charles the Second (1660—7685) 

840. Punishment of the Regicides. — The monarchy having 
been restored in the person of Charles II, Parliament extended a 
general pardon to all who had taken part in the late rebellion, 
except Sir Henry Vane and certain of the judges who had con- 
demned Charles to the block. Thirteen of these were executed 
with revolting cruelty, their hearts and bowels being cut out of 
their living bodies. Others of the regicides were condemned to 
imprisonment for life. Vane was finally executed. Death had 
already removed the other great leaders of the rebellion, — Crom- 
well, Ireton, and Bradshaw, — beyond the reach of Royalist hate ; 
so vengeance was taken upon their bodies. These were dragged 
from their tombs in Westminster Abbey, hauled to Tyburn, and 
there on the anniversary of Charles' execution were hanged, and 
afterwards beheaded (1661). 

841. The Conventicle Act. — Early in the reign the services of 
the Anglican Church were restored by Parliament, and harsh laws 
were enacted against all nonconformists. Thus the Conventicle 
Act (1664) made it a crime for five persons or more, "over and 
above those of the same household," to gather in any house or in 
any place for worship, unless the service was conducted according 
to the forms of the Church of England. 

842 . The Covenanters. — In Scotland the attempt to suppress 
conventicles and introduce Episcopacy was stoutly resisted by the 
Covenanters (sec. 819), who insisted on their right to worship 



596 STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 

God in their own way. They were therefore subjected to persecu- 
tions most cruel and unrelenting. They were hunted by English 
troopers over their native moors and among the wild recesses of 
their mountains, whither they secretly retired for prayer and wor- 
ship. The tales of the sufferings of the Scotch Covenanters at the 
hands of the English Protestants form a most harrowing chapter 
of the records of the ages of religious persecution. 

843. Charles' Intrigues with Louis XIV; "the Popish Plot" 
(1678). — Charles inclined to the Catholic worship, and wished 
to reestablish the Catholic Church, because he thought it more 
favorable than the Anglican to such a scheme of government as 
he aimed to set up in England. To reach his end he entered 
into secret negotiations with Louis XIV of France. The excited 
state of the public mind, caused by rumors of the king's intrigues, 
led to a serious delusion and panic. A report was started that the 
Catholics had planned for England a St. Bartholomew. Each day 
the rumors of the conspiracy grew more wild and exaggerated. 
Informers sprang up on every hand, each with a more terrifying 
story than the preceding. Many Catholics, convicted solely on the 
testimony of perjured witnesses, became the unfortunate victims 
of the delusion and fraud. 

Reign of James the Second (1685-1688) 

844. James' Accession ; his Despotic Course. — Charles was fol- 
lowed by his brother James, whose rule was destined to be short 
and troubled. 5 Like all the other Stuarts, James held exalted 
notions of the divine right of kings to rule as they please, and at 
once set about carrying out these ideas in a most reckless man- 
ner. Notwithstanding he had given solemn assurances that he 
would uphold the Anglican Church, he straightway set about the 

5 James was barely seated upon the throne before the Duke of Monmouth, an 
illegitimate son of Charles II, raised the standard of rebellion. Terrible vengeance 
was wreaked upon all in any way connected with the movement. The notorious 
Chief Justice Jeffreys, in what were called the " Bloody Assizes," condemned to 
death 320 persons and sentenced 841 to transportation. Jeffreys conducted the so- 
called trials with incredible brutality. See Colby's Selections from the Sources of 
English History, No. 81. 



THE REVOLUTION OF 1688 597 

re establishment of the Catholic worship. He arbitrarily prorogued 
and dissolved Parliament. Like his brother Charles, he intrigued 
with Louis XIV against his own subjects. This despotic course of 
the king raised up enemies on all sides. No party or sect, save 
the most zealous Catholics, stood by him. The Tory gentry were 
in favor of royalty, indeed, but not of tyranny. 

845. The Revolution of 1688 and the Declaration of Rights. — 
The crisis which it was easy to see was impending was hastened 
by the birth of a prince, as this cut off the hope of the nation 
that the crown upon James' death would descend to his Protes- 
tant daughter Mary, now wife of the Prince of Orange, Stadtholder 
of Holland. The most active of the king's enemies therefore 
resolved to bring about at once what they had been inclined to 
wait to have accomplished by his death. They sent an invitation 
to the Prince of Orange to come over and take possession of the 
government, pledging him the united and hearty support of the 
English nation. William accepted the invitation and straightway 
began to gather his fleet and army for the enterprise. 

The moment the ships of the Prince touched the shores of the 
island the army and people went over in a body to him. The king 
was absolutely deserted. Flight alone was left him. The queen 
was secretly embarked for France, where the king soon after 
joined her. The last act of the king before leaving England was 
to disband the army and fling the Great Seal into the Thames. 

Almost the first act of the Prince was to issue a call for a con- 
vention to provide for the permanent settlement of the crown. 
This convention did not repeat the error of the Parliament that 
restored Charles II and give the crown to the Prince and Prin- 
cess without proper guaranties for the conduct of the government 
according to the ancient laws of the kingdom. They drew up the 
celebrated Declaration of Rights, which plainly rehearsed all the 
old rights and liberties of Englishmen. William and Mary were 
required to accept this declaration, and to agree to rule in accord- 
ance with its provisions, whereupon they were declared King and 
Queen of England. In such manner was effected what is known 
in history as " the Glorious Revolution of 1688." 



598 STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 

IV. Reign of William and Mary (1689-1702) 

846. The Bill of Rights (Dec. 16, 1689).— The Revolution 
of 1688 and the settlement of the crown upon William and Mary 
mark an epoch in the constitutional history of England. It set- 
tled forever the long dispute between king and Parliament, — 
and settled it in favor of the latter. The Bill of Rights, which 
was substantially the articles of the Declaration of Rights framed 
into a law, and which was one of the earliest acts of the first Par- 
liament under William and Mary, in effect " transferred sovereignty 
from the king to the House of Commons." 

By shutting out James from the throne and bringing in William, 
and by the exclusion of Catholic heirs from the succession, it 
plainly announced that the kings of England derive their right 
and title to rule not from the accident of birth but from the will 
of the people, and that Parliament may depose any king, and, 
excluding from the throne his heirs, settle the crown anew in 
another family. This uprooted quite thoroughly the doctrine that 
princes have a divine and inalienable right to the throne of their 
ancestors, and when once seated on that throne rule simply as the 
vicegerents of God, above all human censure and control. We 
shall hear constantly less and less in England of this theory of 
government which for so long a time overshadowed and threatened 
the freedom of the English people. 

The separate provisions of the bill, following closely the language 
of the Declaration, denied the dispensing power of the crown, — 
that is to say, the authority claimed by the Stuarts of annulling a 
law by a royal edict ; forbade the king to levy taxes or to keep 
an army in time of peace without the consent of Parliament ; 
asserted the right of the people to petition for redress of griev- 
ances and freely to choose their representatives ; reaffirmed, as 
one of the ancient privileges of both Houses, perfect freedom of 
debate ; and demanded that Parliament be frequently assembled. 

Mindful of the attempts of the later Stuarts to reestablish the 
Catholic worship, the framers of the bill further declared that all 
persons holding communion with the Church of Rome or uniting 



SETTLEMENT OF THE REVENUE 599 

in marriage with a Catholic should be " forever incapable to pos- 
sess, inherit, or enjoy the crown and government of the realm." 
Since the Revolution of 1688 no Catholic has worn the English 
crown. 

All of these provisions now became inwrought into the English 
constitution, and from this time forward were recognized as part 
of the fundamental law of the realm. 

847. Settlement of the Revenue. — The articles of the Bill of 
Rights were made effectual by appropriate legislation. One thing 
which had made the Tudors and Stuarts so independent of Parlia- 
ment was the custom which prevailed of granting to each king, at 
the beginning of his reign, the ordinary revenue of the kingdom 
during his life. This income, with what could be raised by gifts, 
benevolences, monopolies, and similar expedients, had enabled 
despotically inclined sovereigns to administer the government and 
even to wage war without turning to Parliament. All this was 
now changed. Parliament, instead of granting William the revenue 
for life, restricted the grant to a single year, and made it a penal 
offense for the officers of the treasury to pay out money otherwise 
than ordered by Parliament. 

We cannot overestimate the importance of this change in the 
English constitution. It is this control of the purse of the nation 
which has made the House of Commons — for all money bills 
must originate in the Lower House — the actual seat of govern- 
ment, constituting them the arbiters of peace and war. 6 

848. James attempts to recover the Throne : Battle of the Boyne 
(1690). — The first years of William's reign were disturbed by the 
efforts of James to regain the throne which he had abandoned. In 
these attempts he was aided by Louis XIV, and by the Jacobites, 7 
the name given to the adherents of the exile king. The Irish 

6 The most important constitutional matter of William's reign after those men- 
tioned in the text were the passage by Parliament of the Mutiny Bill, by which the 
command of the army was given to the king for one year only, and of the Act of Set- 
tlement (June 12, 1701), which was "an act for the further limitation of the crown, 
and better securing the rights and liberties of the subject." The most important article 
of this act, after that determining the succession, was one providing that the judges 
should hold office during good behavior, not simply at the will of the king, as hitherto. 

7 From Jacobus, Latin for " James." 



600 STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 

gave William the most trouble, but in the decisive battle of the 
Boyne he gained a great victory over them, and soon all Ireland 
acknowledged his authority. 

849. Plans and Death of William. — The motive which had 
most strongly urged William to respond to the invitation of the 
English revolutionists to assume the crown of England was his 
desire to turn the arms and resources of that country against 
the great champion of despotism and the dangerous neighbor of 
his own native country, Louis XIV of France. 

The conduct of Louis in lending aid to James in his attempt 
to regain his crown had so enraged the English that they were 
quite ready to support William in his wars against him, and so the 
English and Dutch sailors fought side by side against the common 
enemy in the War of the Palatinate (sec. 805). A short time after 
the close of that war broke out the War of the Spanish Succes- 
sion (sec. 806). In the midst of preparations for this war William 
was fatally hurt by being thrown from his horse (1702). 8 

Selections from the Sources. — In opposition to Filmer, Patriarcha 
(see Sources for Chapter LXI), read Milton, The Tenure of Kings and 
Magistrates. Of the utmost importance for the period of the Civil War and 
the Commonwealth are The Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, with 
elucidations by Thomas Carlyle (ed. by S. C. Lomas). For additional 
material, see Henderson, Side Lights on English History, pp. 33-214; Rob- 
inson, Readings in European History, vol. ii, chap, xxx; and Kendall, 
Source-Book, chaps, xi-xv. 

Secondary Works. — Gardiner, S. R., History of England (1603-1642), 
10 vols. ; History of the Great Civil War, 4 vols.; History of the Common- 
wealth and Protectorate, 4 vols. ; Oliver Cromwell and The First Two Stuarts 
and the Puritan Revolution. Dr. Gardiner made this period especially his 
own. His works are of the highest authority and value. Macaulay, T. B., 
The History of England from the Accession of fames II ; also his Essays on 
Milton and John Hampden. Morley, J., Oliver Cromwell. Harrison, F., 
Oliver Cromwell. Hale, E., The Fall of the Stuarts. Wakeman, H. O., 
The Church of the Puritans. Prendergast, J. P., The Cromwellian Settle- 
ment of Ireland. Trevelyan, G. M., England under the Stuarts. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The character and traits of James I and 
his Dcemo7iologie. 2. The Plantation of Ulster in Ireland. 3. Milton's De- 
fense of the English People. 4. The Great Plague. 5. Butler's Hudibras. 

8 Mary had died before William, and as they left no children, the crown descended 
to the Princess Anne, Mary's sister, the wife of Prince George of Denmark. 



CHAPTER LXIV 

THE RISE OF RUSSIA : PETER THE GREAT 

(1682-1796) 

850. General Remarks. — We left Russia at the close of the 
Middle Ages a semi-savage, semi-Asiatic power, so hemmed in 
by barbarian bands and hostile races as to be almost entirely cut 
off from intercourse with the civilized world (sec. 664). In the 
present chapter we shall tell how her isolation was broken, and 
how she was initiated as a member of the European family of 
nations. The main interest of our story will gather about Peter 
the Great, whose almost superhuman strength and energy it was 
that first lifted the great barbarian nation to a prominent place 
among the Western states. 

851. Accession of Peter the Great (1682). — The royal line 
established in Russia by the old Norseman Rurik (sec. 538) 
ended in 1598. Then followed a period of confusion and of 
foreign invasion, known as the Troublous Times, after which a 
prince of the celebrated House of Romanoff came to the throne 
(1613). For more than half a century after the accession of the 
Romanoffs there is little either in the genius or in the deeds 
of any of the line calculated to draw our special attention. But 
towards the close of the seventeenth century there ascended the 
Russian throne " a man of miracles," — a man whose genius and 
energy and achievements instantly drew the gaze of his contem- 
poraries, and who has elicited the admiration and wonder of all 
succeeding generations. This was Peter I, known as Peter the 
Great, one of the remarkable characters of history. He was but 
seventeen years of age when he assumed the full responsibilities 
of government. 

852. The Conquest of Azof (1696). — At this time Russia pos- 
sessed only one seaport, Archangel, on the White Sea, the harbor 
of which for a large part of the year is sealed against vessels by the 

601 



602 



THE RISE OF RUSSIA 



extreme cold of that high latitude. Russia, consequently, had no 
marine commerce ; there was no word for fleet in the Russian 
language. Peter saw clearly that the most urgent need of his 
empire was outlets upon the sea. Hence his first aim was to 
wrest the Baltic shore from the grasp of Sweden, and the Euxine 

from the hands of the 
Turks. 

In 1695 Peter 
sailed down the Don 
and made an attack 
upon Azof, the key 
to the Black Sea, but 
was unsuccessful. 
The next year, how- 
ever, repeating the 
attempt, he suc- 
ceeded, and thus 
gained his first har- 
bor on the south. 

853. Peter's Visit 
to the "West (1697- 
1 698). — With a view 
to advancing his 
naval projects Peter 
about this time sent 
a large number of 
young Russian nobles 
to Italy, Holland, 
and England to ac- 
quire in those countries a knowledge of naval affairs, forbidding 
them to return before they had become good sailors. 

Not satisfied with thus sending to foreign parts his young 
nobility, Peter formed the somewhat startling resolution of going 
abroad himself and learning the art of shipbuilding by personal 
experience in the dockyards of Holland. Accordingly, in the year 
1697, leaving the government in the hands of three nobles, he 




Fig. 142. — Peter the Great. (After a 
painting by Karel de Moor) 



PETER DISBANDS THE STRELTSI 603 

set out for the Netherlands. Arriving there, he proceeded to Zaan- 
dam, a place a short distance from Amsterdam. After a week's 
stay here, in order to escape the annoyance of the crowds, Peter 
left the place and went to the docks of the East India Company 
at Amsterdam. Here he worked for four months, being known 
among his fellow-workmen as Baas or Master Peter. 

From Holland Master Peter went to England to study her 
superior naval establishment and to learn " the why " and " the 
wherefore." Here he was fittingly received by King William III, 
who had presented Peter while in Holland with a splendid yacht, 
and who now made his guest extremely happy by getting up for 
him a naval review. Returning from England to Holland, Peter 
went thence to Vienna, intending to visit Venice ; but hearing of 
an insurrection at home, he set out in haste for Moscow. 

854. Peter disbands the Streltsi and creates a New Army after 
Western Models. — The revolt which had hastened Peter's return 
from the West was an uprising among the Streltsi, a body of mili- 
tia, numbering twenty or thirty thousand, who formed the nearest 
thing to a standing Russian army. In their ungovernable turbu- 
lence they remind us of the praetorians of the Roman emperors, 
or the janizaries of the later Turkish sultans. The present mutiny 
had been suppressed before Peter's arrival, so that there was noth- 
ing now remaining for him to do save to mete out punishment to 
the ringleaders, of whom a thousand or more were put to death 
with the crudest tortures. Peter beheaded some of the wretches 
with his own hands, and compelled the nobles of his court also 
to help strike off the heads of the condemned. Nothing better 
illustrates the barbarism of the Russia of Peter's time than the 
fact that his acting thus as an executioner never shocked his 
subjects in the least. 

This revolt settled Peter in his determination to rid himself 
altogether of the insolent and turbulent Streltsi. Their place was 
taken by a well-disciplined force trained according to the tactics 
of the Western nations. 

855. Peter's Other Reforms. — The reorganization of the Rus- 
sian military system was only one of the many reforms undertaken 



604 THE RISE OF RUSSIA 

by Peter. The variety of these was so great, and Peter's manner 
of effecting them so harsh and strenuous, that, as one has aptly 
expressed it, he fairly "knouted the Russians into civilization." 

As outgrowths of what he had seen or heard or had had sug- 
gested to him on his foreign tour, Peter issued a new coinage, 
introduced schools, built factories, constructed roads and canals, 
established a postal system, opened mines, and framed laws 
modeled after those of the West. 

Most important in its political as well as religious consequences 
was Peter's reform in the ecclesiastical system. At this time the 
Russian Church formed a sort of state within the state. The 
head of the Church, bearing the title of Patriarch, was a kind of 
Russian pope. Through his censorship of the temporal authority 
and his interference in matters secular he hampered and embar- 
rassed the government. Peter put an end to this state of things. 
He abolished the patriarchate and in its place created an admin- 
istrative body, appointed by himself and called the Holy Synod, 
to take charge of ecclesiastical affairs. Thus the last restraint 
upon the authority of the Tsar was destroyed. The Russian 
government became an unlimited monarchy of the purest Ori- 
ental type. 

856. Charles XII of Sweden ; the Swedish Monarchy at his 
Accession. — Peter's history now becomes intertwined with that of 
a man quite as remarkable as himself, — Charles XII of Sweden. 
Sweden was at this time one of the great powers of Europe. The 
Baltic was virtually a Swedish lake, — the Mediterranean of an 
empire which aspired to be the mistress of the North. 

But unfortunately Sweden could not maintain such a sea empire 
without hemming in and cramping in their normal development, 
territorial or commercial, various neighboring states, — in partic- 
ular Russia, Poland, and Denmark. In this situation lay hidden 
the germ of the long and obstinate so-named Swedish Wars, which 
were essentially a struggle for the control of the Baltic. 

The accession to the throne in 1697 of the young and inex- 
perienced Charles offered to the jealous enemies and watchful 
rivals of Sweden seemingly too good an opportunity to be lost 



«2 
Q 



ci &2 a, aj a, S3 h 




^ i 







j rv, r 






^f- ■-. 






./^ 



THE BATTLE OF NARVA 605 

for pushing her back into the northern peninsula. Accordingly 
three sovereigns, Frederick IV of Denmark, Augustus the Strong, 
Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, and Peter the Great of 
Russia, leagued against him for the purpose of appropriating 
such portions of his dominions as they severally coveted. 

857. The Battle of Narva (1700). — But the conspirators had 
formed a wrong estimate of the young Swedish monarch. With 
a well-trained force — a veteran army that had not yet forgotten 
the discipline of the hero Gustavus Adolphus — Charles threw 
himself first upon the Danes, and in two weeks forced the Danish 
king to sue for peace; then he turned his little army of eight 
thousand men upon the Russian forces of twenty thousand, which 
were besieging the city of Narva, on the Gulf of Finland, and 
inflicted upon them a most ignominious defeat. The only com- 
ment of the imperturbable Peter upon the disaster was, "The 
Swedes will have the advantage of us at first, but they will teach 
us how to beat them." 

858. The Founding of St. Petersburg (1 703) . — After chastising 
the Tsar at Narva, the Swedish king turned south and marched into 
Poland to punish Augustus for the part he had taken in the conspir- 
acy against him. While Charles was busied in this quarter Peter 
was gradually making himself master of the Swedish lands on the 
Baltic, and upon a marshy island at the mouth of the Neva was 
laying the foundations of the city of Petersburg, which he pro- 
posed to make the western gateway of his empire. The spot 
selected by Peter as the site of his new capital was low and sub- 
ject to inundation, 1 so that the labor required to make it fit for 
building purposes was simply enormous. The splendid capital 
stands to-day one of the most impressive monuments of the 
indomitable and despotic energy of Peter. 

859. Invasion of Russia by Charles XII ; the Battle of Poltava 
(1709). — Having defeated the armies of King Augustus and 
given his crown to another, Charles was now ready to turn his 

1 In selecting such a marshy site for his capital Peter may have been aiming 
to reproduce Amsterdam, in which city he had spent so much of his time when 
abroad. 



606 THE RISE OF RUSSIA 

attention once more to the Tsar. With an army of barely forty 
thousand men he invaded Russia, and finally laid siege to the 
town of Poltava. Peter marched to its relief, and the two armies 
met in decisive combat in front of the place. The Swedish army 
was virtually annihilated. Escaping from the field with a few 
followers, Charles fled southward and found an asylum in Turkey. 2 

860. Russia's Title to Baltic Land confirmed; Peter's Death. 
— In 1 7 2 1 the Swedish Wars were brought to an end by the 
Peace of Nystad, which confirmed Russia's title to all the eastern 
Baltic lands that Peter had wrested from the Swedes. The undis- 
puted possession of so large a strip of the Baltic seaboard vastly 
increased the importance and influence of Russia, which now 
assumed a place among the leading European powers. 

Peter's eventful reign was now drawing to a close. Four years 
after the end of the Swedish Wars, being then in his fifty-fourth 
year, he died of a fever brought on by his excesses and careless 
exposures. Probably in the case of no other European nation has 
any single personality left so deep and abiding an impress upon 
the national life and 'history as Peter the Great left upon Russian 
society and Russian history. He planted throughout his vast 
empire the seeds of Western civilization, and by his giant strength 
lifted the great nation which destiny had placed in his hands out 
of Asiatic barbarism into the society of the European peoples. 

861. Reign of Catherine the Great (1762-179 6); the Partition 
of Poland. — From the death of Peter on to the close of the 
eighteenth century the Russian throne was held, the greater part 
of the time, by women, the most noted of whom was Catherine II, 
the Great, who was one of the most distinguished representatives 
of the so-called Enlightened Despots (sec. 796). But while a 
woman of great genius, she had most serious faults of character, 
being incredibly profligate and unscrupulous. 

2 After spending five years among the Turks, during which time he acted in a 
manner which abundantly justified his title of the " Madman of the North," Charles 
returned to Sweden. Soon after his return he was killed in battle. At the time of 
his death Charles was only thirty-six years of age. Perhaps we can understand him 
best by regarding him, as his biographer Voltaire suggests, as an old Norse sea king 
born ten centuries after his time. He was indeed " the last of the Vikings." 



REIGN OF CATHERINE THE GREAT 



607 



Carrying out ably the policy of Peter the Great, Catherine 
extended vastly the limits of Russian dominion and opened the 
country even more thoroughly than he had done to the entrance 
of Western influences. Aside from internal reforms, one of the 
most noteworthy matters of Catherine's reign was her participa- 
tion in the dismemberment of Poland, the partition of which state 
she planned in connection with Frederick the Great of Prussia 
and Maria Theresa 
of Austria. On the 
first division, which 
was made in 1772, 
the royal robbers 
each took a portion 
of the spoils. 3 

It is difficult to 
apportion the blame 
among the partici- 
pators in this trans- 
action. Maria 
Theresa seems to 
have been the only 
one connected with 
the iniquitous busi- 
ness who had any 
scruples of con- 
science respecting 
the act. She justly 

characterized the proposed partition as downright robbery, for a 
long time stood out against it, and yielded at last and took her 

3 The Polish constitution was a survival of the age of mediaeval feudal anarchy. 
In the struggle here between the royal power and the feudal nobility the aristocracy 
had triumphed, and had reduced the kingly authority to the mere shadow of elective 
kingship. But it must be added that this anarchical state of the kingdom cannot be 
pleaded by the dismemberers of Poland in extenuation of their crime, for they in 
every possible way prevented all schemes of reform and fostered the anarchy because 
it served their interests and furthered their plans to do so. Besides, an admirable 
new constitution was drawn up for Poland in 1791, which would have made it a 
strong state had a chance been allowed. 




Fig. 143. — Catherine II of Russia. 
a portrait by Rosselin) 



(After 



608 THE RISE OF RUSSIA 

portion only when she realized that she was powerless to prevent 
the others from carrying out the policy of dismemberment. 

In 1793 a second partition was made, this time between Russia 
and Prussia; and then in 1795, after the suppression of a deter- 
mined revolt of the Poles under the lead of the patriot Kosciuszko, 
a third and final division among the three powers completed the 
dismemberment of the unhappy state and erased its name from 
the map of Europe. This was the first instance in two hundred 
years of the destruction of a sovereign Christian state by sister 
states. Unfortunately the pages of the history of the following 
century were to be stained with the record of many similar acts 
of international brigandage, yet by none quite as wicked or as 
far-reaching in its regrettable consequences as was this assassina- 
tion of Poland. 

The territory gained by Russia in the dismemberment of Poland 
brought her western frontier close alongside the civilization of 
Central Europe. In Catherine's phrase, Poland had become her 
"door mat," upon which sh,e stepped when visiting the West. 

By the close of Catherine's reign Russia was one of the fore- 
most powers of Europe, and was henceforward to have a voice in 
all matters of general European concern. She was destined to 
play an important part in the Napoleonic Wars and in the great 
struggle between the people and their despotic rulers, — a strug- 
gle already inaugurated on the Continent by the Revolutionists 
in France. 

Selections from the Sources. — Robinson, Readings in European His- 
tory, vol. ii, pp. 301-312. 

Secondary Works. — Rambaud, A., History of Russia, 3 vols. This is 
the best comprehensive history of Russia available in English. Schuyler, 
E., Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia ; the best biography of the great 
Tsar. For a shorter, delightfully written life, see Motley, J., Peter the 
Great. Morfill, W. R., Story of Russia, chaps, v-ix, and Story of Poland, 
chap, xi ; the last for the Partition of Poland. Bain, R. N., Char/es XII. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Geography of the Russian Empire. 
2. Ivan the Terrible. 3. Peter's boyhood. 4. The founding of St. Peters- 
burg. 5. Peter and his son and heir, Alexis. 



CHAPTER LXV 

THE RISE OF PRUSSIA: FREDERICK THE GREAT 

(1740-1786) 

862. The Beginnings of Prussia. — The foundation of the 
Prussian kingdom was laid in the beginning of the seventeenth 
century (in 161 1) by the union of two small states south of the 
Baltic, one in Germany and one in Poland. These were the Elect- 
orate of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia (sec. 582). Bran- 
denburg had been gradually growing into prominence since the 
tenth century. Its ruler at this time was a prince of the noted 
House of Hohenzollern, and was one of the seven princes to 
whom belonged the right of electing the Emperor. 

863. The Great Elector Frederick William (1 640-1 688). — 
Just before the close of the Thirty Years' War a strong man — 
Frederick William, better known as the " Great Elector " — came 
to the throne of the dual state. At the Peace of Westphalia he 
secured new territory, which greatly enhanced his power and 
prominence among the German princes. 

The Great Elector ruled for nearly half a century, and left to 
his successor a strongly centralized authority. He was one of the 
most ideal representatives of the principle of absolute monarchy 
then so dominant. Like all absolute rulers, he placed his faith 
in soldiers, and laid the basis of the military power of Prussia 
by the creation of a standing army. 

864. The Elector of Brandenburg acquires the Title of King. — 
Elector Frederick III (1688-17 13), son of the Great Elector, 
was ambitious for the title of King, a dignity that the weight and 
influence won for the Prussian state by his father fairly justified 
him in seeking. He saw about him other princes less powerful 
than himself enjoying this dignity, and he too " would be a king 
and wear a crown." There were certain jealousies to be over- 
come, but finally it was arranged that he might assume the new 

609 



6io 



THE RISE OF PRUSSIA 



title and dignity in the Duchy of Prussia, which, unlike Branden- 
burg, was not included in the Empire. Accordingly, early in the 
year 1701, Frederick, amidst imposing ceremonies, was crowned 
and hailed as King at Konigsberg. Hitherto he had been Elector 
of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia ; now he was Elector of 

Brandenburg and King of 
Prussia. 

Thus was a new king 
born among the kings of 
Europe. The event is a 
landmark in German, and 
even in European, history. 
The cue of German his- 
tory from this on is the 
growth of the power of the 
Prussian kings and their 
steady advance to imperial 
honors and to the control 
of the affairs of the Ger- 
man race. 

865. Frederick Wil- 
liam I (1713-1740). — 
The son and successor of 
the first Prussian king, 
known as Frederick Wil- 
liam I, was a most ex- 
traordinary character. He 
was a strong, violent, brutal 
man, full of the strangest 
freaks. He had a mania for 
big soldiers. With infinite expense and trouble he gathered a 
regiment of the tallest men he could find, who were known as 
the "Potsdam Giants." Not only were the Goliaths of his own 
dominions impressed into the service, but tall men in all parts of 
Europe were coaxed and hired to join the regiment. No present 
was so acceptable to Frederick William as a tall grenadier. 




Fig. 144. — Frederick the Great of 
Prussia. (From a photograph of the 
statue presented to the United States 
by Emperor William II, and unveiled 
at Washington, Nov. 19, 1904) 



ACCESSION OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 6ll 

Rough, brutal tyrant though he was, Frederick William was an 
able ruler. He did much to consolidate the power of Prussia, 
and at his death left to his successor a considerably extended 
dominion and a splendidly drilled army of eighty thousand men. 

866. Accession of Frederick the Great (1740). — Frederick 
William was followed by his son Frederick II, to whom the world 
has agreed to give the title of Great. He was one of the few 
kings of whom it can be said that they were kings by right of 
genius as well as by right of birth. Around his name gather 
events of world-wide interest for forty-six years just preceding the 
French Revolution. 

Frederick had a genius for war, and his father had prepared to 
his hand one of the most efficient instruments of that art since 
the time of the Roman legions. The two great wars in which 
Frederick was engaged, and which raised Prussia to the first 
rank among the military powers of Europe, were the War of 
the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. 

867. War of the Austrian Succession (1 740-1 748). — The very 
year that Frederick II ascended the Prussian throne the last of 
the direct male line of the Hapsburgs, the Emperor Charles VI, 
died. Now not long before his death Charles had bound all the 
leading powers of Europe to a sort of agreement called the Prag- 
matic Sanction, by the terms of which, in case he should leave 
no son, all his hereditary dominions should descend to his elder 
daughter, Maria Theresa. But no sooner was Charles dead than 
a number of princes each laid claim to all or to portions of the 
Hapsburg inheritance. Before any of these claimants, however, 
had begun hostilities, Frederick, — whose father had guaranteed 
the Pragmatic Sanction, — without any declaration of war, marched 
his army into Silesia and took forcible possession of that country. 
Frederick's act was an act of pure brigandage. He himself frankly 
tells posterity that the mixed motives under which he acted were a 
desire to augment his dominions, to render himself and Prussia 
respected in Europe, and to "acquire fame." 

Almost all Europe was soon in arms. England, the Protestant 
Netherlands, and eventually Russia were drawn into the war as 



6l2 THE RISE OF PRUSSIA 

allies of Maria Theresa. The theater of the struggle came to 
embrace India and the French and English colonies in the New 
World. Macaulay's well-known words picture the world-wide range 
of the conflagration which Frederick's act had kindled : " In order 
that he might rob a neighbor," he says, " whom he had promised 
to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel, and red 
men scalped each other by the Great Lakes of North America." 

The war went on until 1748, when it was closed by the Peace 
of Aix-la-Chapelle. Carlyle's summing up of the provisions of 
the various treaties of this peace can be easily remembered, and 
is not misleading as to the essentials : "To Frederick, Silesia ; as 
to the rest, wholly as they were." 

868. The Seven Years' War (17 56-1 763). — During the eight 
years of peace which now followed, Maria Theresa was busy form- 
ing a league of the chief European powers against the unscrupu- 
lous despoiler of her dominions. Russia, Sweden, many of the 
states of the Germanic body, and France all ultimately entered 
into an alliance with the queen. Frederick could at first find no 
ally save England, — towards the close of the war Russia came 
for a short time to his side, — so that he was left almost alone to 
fight the armies of half the Continent. Throughout the struggle 
Prussia was scarcely more than a " Spartan camp." 

The long war is known in European history as the Seven Years' 
War. At the very outset it became mixed with what in American 
history is called the French and Indian War. For a time fortune 
was on Frederick's side. In the celebrated battles of Rossbach, 
Leuthen, and Zorndorf he defeated successively the French, the 
Austrians, and the Russians, and startled all Europe into an ac- 
knowledgment of the fact that the armies of Prussia had at their 
head one of the greatest commanders of the world. His name 
became everywhere a household word, and everybody coupled 
with it the admiring epithet of Great. 

But fortune finally deserted Frederick. In sustaining the un- 
equal contest his dominions became drained of men, and inevi- 
table ruin seemed to impend over his throne and kingdom. But 
just at this time a change by death in the government of Russia 



Lit 




PRUSSIA, 

at tlic Accession of 

FREDERICK THE GREAT 

in.l?40 

, 60 100 



Scale of Mile 




PRUSSIA 

at the Death of 
FREDERICK THE GREAT 

In 1?86 

50 100 

Scale ofTSHle 



FREDERICK AS AN ENLIGHTENED DESPOT 613 

put a new face upon affairs. In 1762 Empress Elizabeth of that 
country died, and Peter III, an ardent admirer of Frederick, came 
to the throne, and immediately transferred the armies of Russia 
from the side of the adies to that of Prussia. The alliance lasted 
only a few months, Peter being deposed and murdered by his 
wife, who now came to the throne as Catherine II. She adopted 
a neutral policy and recalled her armies ; but the temporary alli- 
ance had given Frederick a decisive advantage, and the year fol- 
lowing the defection of Russia, England and France were glad to 
give over the struggle and sign the Peace of Paris (1763). Shortly 
after this another peace (the Treaty of Hubertsburg) was arranged 
between Austria and Prussia, and one of the most terrible wars that 
had ever disturbed Europe was over. Silesia was left in the hands 
of Frederick. 

The Seven Years' War was one of the decisive combats of his- 
tory. Besides the Anglo-French question in India (sec. 876), it 
settled two questions of vast reach and significance. First, it 
settled, or at least put in the way of final settlement, the Austro- 
Prussian question, — the question as to whether Austria or Prussia 
should be leader in Germany. It made Prussia the equal of Aus- 
tria and foreshadowed her ascendancy. 

Second, it settled the Anglo-French question in America, a 
question like the Austro-Prussian question in Europe. It decided 
that North America should belong to the Protestant Anglo-Saxon,, 
and not to the Catholic Latin, race. 

869. Frederick as an Enlightened Despot. — In all matters con- 
cerning foreign states, expediency was Frederick's only guide ; 
he did whatever he thought would aggrandize Prussia and glorify 
himself, without any regard to truth, honesty, or honor. 1 But for 
his guidance in his relations to his own people he had an admi- 
rable moral code. Duty was his watchword here. So just and 
exalted was his conception of his kingly office, and so worthy 
the use he made of it, that he has been assigned a first place 
among the Enlightened Despots of the eighteenth century. Pro- 
fessor Morse Stephens illustrates the difference between the 

1 For Frederick's part in the partition of Poland, see sec. 861. 



614 THE RISE OF PRUSSIA 

despotism of Louis XIV and that of Frederick by thus setting in 
contrast their respective maxims : " Louis said, ' I am the State ' ; 
Frederick said, ' I am the first servant of the State.' " 

During the intervals of peace between his great wars, and for 
the half of his reign which followed the Peace of Hubertsburg, 
Frederick did indeed labor untiringly to develop the resources 
of his dominions and to promote the material welfare of his peo- 
ple. He dug canals, constructed roads, drained marshes, encour- 
aged agriculture and manufactures, and improved in every possible 
way the administration of the government. 

But Frederick's attention was not wholly engrossed with look- 
ing after the material well-being of his subjects. He was a philoso- 
pher and believed himself to be a poet, and usually spent several 
hours each day in philosophical and literary pursuits. It has 
been said of him that " he divided with Voltaire the intellectual 
monarchy of the eighteenth century." He gathered about him a 
company selected from among the most distinguished authors, sci- 
entists, and philosophers of the age, among whom was his "co- 
sovereign" Voltaire, whom Frederick coaxed to Berlin to add 
brilliancy to his court, and to criticise and correct his verses. 
Frederick felt very proud — for a time — of this acquisition, and 
rejoiced that to his other titles he could now add that of " the 
Possessor of Voltaire." But it was an ill-assorted friendship ; the 
two " sovereigns " soon quarreled, and Voltaire was dismissed 
from court in disgrace. 

It was on the eve of the French Revolution that Frederick 
died, — in 1786. Carlyle calls him "the last of the kings." He 
was of course not the last in name, but there was none after him 
as great as he. Only three years after he had been laid in the 
tomb broke out the revolution which closed the Age of the Kings 
and ushered in the Age of the People. 

870. Summary : Prussia made a New Center of German 
Crystallization. — This chapter may be summarized in this way. 
The all-important result of Frederick the Great's strong reign was 
the making of Prussia the equal of Austria, and thereby the laying 
of the basis of future German unity. Hitherto Germany had been 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 615 

trying unsuccessfully to concentrate about Austria ; now there was 
a new center of crystallization, — one which was destined to draw 
to itself the Protestant elements of German nationality. 

The internal history of Germany from Frederick's reign on, if 
we leave out of consideration the period of Napoleon's domina- 
tion, is very largely the story of the rivalry of these two powers, 
resulting in the final triumph of Prussia and the unification of Ger- 
many under her leadership, Austria with the mixed races under 
her rule being pushed out as entitled to no part in the affairs of 
the German fatherland. This story we shall tell in a later chapter. 

Selections from the Sources. — Memoirs of Frederica Sophia Wil- 
helmina (Margravine of Baireuth, sister of Frederick the Great). These 
memoirs form one of the most graphic and piquant autobiographies ever 
written. They hold striking portraits of the author's savage father, Fred- 
erick William I, of her brother, to whom she was devotedly attached, and 
of many other distinguished contemporaries. But Wilhelmina's lively imagi- 
nation and her mischievous if not malicious spirit caused her to overcplor 
and to exaggerate. Consequently the numerous portraits which she delights 
in sketching, while always interesting and often amusing, are not to be 
taken too seriously. Robinson, Readings in European History, vol. ii, 

PP- 3 1 5-3 2 8- 

Secondary Works. — Tuttle, H., History of Prussia, 4 vols. This 
work was unhappily interrupted at the year 1757 by the death of the author. 
It is the best history in English of the period covered. Reddaway, W. F., 
Frederick the Great and the Rise of Prussia. C arlyle, T., History of Fried- 
rich the Second, 5 vols. This is one of Carlyle's masterpieces. Like his 
French Revolution, it will be best appreciated if read after some acquaint- 
ance with its subject has been gained from other sources. It deals almost 
exclusively with Frederick's twenty-three years of war and utterly neglects 
or minimizes the twenty-three of his reign which were years of peace. 
Hassall, A., The Balance of Power, 1715-1789, chaps, vi-ix. Longman, 
F. W., Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' War. Bright, J. F., 
Maria Theresa. Macaulay, J. B., Essay on Frederick the Great. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The Teutonic Knights and the begin- 
nings of Prussia. 2. Character of the father of Frederick the Great. 3. The 
Regiment of Giants. 4. The Empress-Queen Maria Theresa. 5. Frederick 
the Great and Voltaire. 6. Frederick the Great as an enlightened despot. 



CHAPTER LXVI 
ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

I. The Reign of Queen Anne (1702-17 14) 

871. The Formula for Eighteenth-Century English History. — 

" The expansion of England in the New World and in Asia," says 
Professor Seeley, " is the formula which sums up for England the 
history of the eighteenth century." 

This expansion movement was simply the continuation of a 
trade and commercial development which had begun in the 
sixteenth century, and which had shaped large sections of the 
history of England by bringing her into sharp rivalry first with 
Spain and then with the Dutch Netherlands. Before the close 
of the seventeenth century England had practically triumphed 
over both these commercial rivals. Her great and dangerous 
rival in the eighteenth century was France. "The whole period," 
says Seeley, referring to the period between 1688 and 181 5, 
" stands out as an age of gigantic rivalry between England and 
France, a kind of second Hundred Years' War." 

To indicate from the viewpoint of English history the chief 
episodes in this great struggle between the two rivals for com- 
mercial and colonial supremacy will be our chief aim in the 
present chapter. We shall, however, in order to render more 
complete our sketch of this century of English history, touch 
upon some other matters of special interest, though these be 
connected in no direct manner with the dominant movement of 
the period. 

872. "War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). — The War 
of the Spanish Succession covered the whole of the reign of 
Queen Anne. Respecting the causes and results of this war, and 
of England's part in it, we have already spoken in connection 
with the reign of Louis XIV (sec. 806). Of what was there said 

616 



UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 617 

we need here recall only the enumeration of the territorial gains 
which the war brought to England ; namely, Gibraltar and the 
island of Minorca in the Old World, and Nova Scotia together 
with a clear title to Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay Territory 
in the New. 

Thus as results of the first war of the eighteenth century Eng- 
land had got practical control of the Mediterranean, had made 
a beginning of wresting from France her possessions in the New 
World, and had gained mastery of the seas. " Before the war," 
says Mahan, " England was one of the sea powers ; after it she 
was the sea power, without any second." 

873. Parliamentary Union of England and Scotland (1707). — 
The most noteworthy matter in the domestic history of England 
during the reign of Queen Anne was the union of the Parliaments 
of England and Scotland. At this time England, dealing with 
Scotland as though it were a foreign state, shut out the Scotch 
traders not only from the English colonies but also from the 
English home market. 

The feeling in Scotland against England became intense, and 
there were threats of breaking the dynastic ties which united 
the two countries. The English government, realizing the danger 
which lurked in the situation, — for the national sentiment in Scot- 
land was still strong, — at last met the Scots in a spirit of rea- 
sonable compromise. It was agreed that the Parliaments of the 
two countries should be united, that perfect free trade should 
be established between them, and that all the English colonies 
should be open to Scotch traders. On this basis was brought 
about the union of the two realms into a single kingdom under 
the name of Great Britain (1707). From this time forward the 
two countries were represented by one Parliament sitting at 
Westminster. 

The union was advantageous to both countries ; for it was a 
union not simply of hands but of hearts. As to Scotland, her 
entrance into England's home and colonial markets resulted in a 
wonderful expansion of her energies and resources. Ten years after 
the union the first Scotch vessel intended for the transatlantic 



618 ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

trade was launched on the Clyde. The Clyde to-day is one of the 
greatest centers of the shipbuilding industry, and Glasgow is one 
of the largest and most important seaports of the world. 

II. England under the Earlier Hanoverians 1 

874. The Sovereign's Loss of Political Influence ; the Prime 
Minister and the Cabinet. — The first Hanoverian king, George I 
(1 714— 1727), was utterly ignorant of the language and the affairs 
of the people over whom he had been called to rule. On this 
account he was obliged to intrust to his ministers the practical 
administration of the government. The same was true in the 
case of George II. George III, having been born and educated 
in England, regained some of the old influence of former kings. 
But he was the last English sovereign who had any large personal 
influence in shaping governmental policies. 

The power and patronage lost by the crown passed into the 
hands of the chief minister, popularly called the Prime Minister, 
or Premier, whose tenure of office was dependent not upon the 
good will of the sovereign but upon the support of the House of 
Commons. This transfer of power was not made all at once, but 
by the middle of the eighteenth century it was practically com- 
pleted, although this fact was not always gracefully and promptly 
recognized by the crown. In the English government of to-day 
the Prime Minister is the actual and fully acknowledged execu- 
tive. The king remains the titular sovereign, indeed, but all real 
power and patronage are in the hands of the Premier. 

The first English Prime Minister in the modern sense was Sir 
Robert Walpole. He was at the head of the government, as the 
leader of the Whig party, for about twenty-one years (1721-1742). 2 

1 The sovereigns of the House of Hanover are George I (1714-1727), George II 
(1727-1760), George III (1760-1820), George IV (1S20-1S30), William IV (1830- 
1837), Victoria (1837-1901), and Edward VII (1901- ). 

2 To him has been attributed the cynical saying, " Every man has his price." But 
he did not utter this " famous slander on mankind." What he actually did say was, 
'All these men have their price," — referring to a group of his opponents. See Mor- 
ley, Walpole, p. 127; and Lecky, England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i, p. 399. 



THE RELIGIOUS REVIVAL 619 

It was during the administration of Walpole that what is known 
as the Cabinet assumed substantially the form which it has at 
the present time. This body is practically a committee composed 
of members of Parliament, headed by the Prime Minister, and 
dependent for its existence upon the will of the House of Com- 
mons. The Premier and his colleagues stand and fall together. 
When the Cabinet can no longer command a majority in the Com- 
mons, its members resign, and a new Prime Minister, appointed 
nominally by the sovereign, but really by the party in control of the 
House of Commons, forms a new Cabinet. 3 

875. The Religious Revival ; the Rise of Methodism. — It will 
be well for us here to turn aside from the political affairs of Eng- 
land and cast a glance upon the religious life of the time. In its 
spiritual and moral life the England of the earlier Hanoverians 
was the England of the restored Stuarts. Among the higher 
classes there was widespread infidelity ; religion was a matter of 
jest and open scoff. The Church was dead ; the higher clergy 
were neglectful of their duties. The lower classes were stolid, cal- 
lous, and brutal. Drunkenness was almost universal among high 
and low. The nation was immersed in material pursuits, and was 
without thought or care for things ideal and spiritual. 

Such a state of things in society as this has never failed to 
awaken in select souls a vehement protest. And it was so now. 
At Oxford, about the year 1730, a number of earnest young men, 
among whom we find John and Charles Wesley and George White- 
field, formed a little society, the object of which was mutual help- 
fulness in true Christian living. From their strict and methodical 
manner of life they were derisively nicknamed " Methodists." 

This Oxford movement was the starting point of a remarkable 
religious revival. John Wesley was the organizer, Whitefield the 
orator, and Charles Wesley the poet of the movement. 4 They 
and their helpers reached the neglected masses through open-air 



3 The Cabinet is an essential feature of all modern self-governing states which have 
constitutions copied after the parliamentary system developed by the English. 

4 Charles Wesley wrote over six thousand hymns, many of which are still favorites 
in the hymnals of to-day. 



620 ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

meetings. They preached in the fields, at the street corners, 
beneath the trees, at the great mining camps. The effects of 
their fervid exhortations were often as startling as were those 
of the appeals of the preachers of the Crusades. 

The leaders of the revival at first had no thought of estab- 
lishing a Church distinct from the Anglican, but simply aimed 
at forming within the Established Church a society of earnest, 
devout workers, somewhat like that of the Christian Endeavor 
societies in our present churches. They were finally constrained, 
however, by petty persecution to go out from the established 
organization and form a Church of their own. 

The revival, like the Puritan movement of the seventeenth 
century, left a deep impress upon the life of England. It is due 
largely to this movement that in true religious feeling, in social 
purity, in moral earnestness, in humanitarian sentiment, the Eng- 
land of to-day is separated by such a gulf from the England of 
the first two Georges. 

876. The Seven Years' War 5 (1 756-1 763). — Just after the 
middle of the century there broke out between the French and 
the English colonists in America the so-called French and Indian 
War, which became blended with what in Europe is known as 
the Seven Years' War (sec. 868). At first the war went disas- 
trously against the English, — Braddock's expedition against Fort 
Duquesne, upon the march to which he suffered his memorable 
defeat in the wilderness, being but one of several ill-starred Eng- 
lish undertakings. In the Old World Minorca had been lost, and 
with it virtually the control of the Mediterranean. Never were 
Englishmen cast into deeper despair. Never had they so com- 
pletely lost faith in themselves. The Earl of Chesterfield wrote : 
"We are undone both at home and abroad. . . . We are no 
longer a nation." 

The gloom was at its deepest when the elder William Pitt (later 
Earl of Chatham), known as " the Great Commoner," came to 
the head of affairs in England. Pitt was one of the greatest 
men the English race has ever produced. Frederick the Great 

6 For the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), see sec. 867. 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 



621 



expressed his estimate of him in these words : " England has at 
last brought forth a man." Pitt exercised the full authority of 
Prime Minister — though he was not the nominal head of the 
ministry — from 1757 to 1761. These were great years in Eng- 
lish history. It was 
like a return of 
Cromwell's rule. 

The turning 
point in the war, so 
far as America was 
concerned, was the 
great victory gained 
by the English 
under the youthful 
Major General 
Wolfe over the 
French u n d e" r 
Montcalm on the 
Heights of Quebec 
(1759). The vic- 
tory gave England 
Quebec, the key. to 
the situation in the 
New World. 

In India also vic- 
tory was declaring for the English in their struggle there with the 
French and their native allies. Two years before the battle of 
Quebec, Colonel Robert Clive, an officer in the employ of the 
English East India Company, with a force insignificant in num- 
bers, in the memorable battle of Plassey (1757) had put to flight 
a native army of sixty thousand foot and horse, and had thus 
virtually laid, in the northeastern region of the peninsula, the 
basis of England's great Indian Empire. 6 




Fig. 145. — William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 
(After a portrait by R. Bromptori) 



6 The prelude to this battle was a terrible crime committed by Siraj-ud-Daula, 
viceroy of Bengal and other provinces. Moved by anger at the refusal of the English 
official to surrender certain fugitives, and urged on by French agents, the viceroy 



622 ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

The end came in 1763 with the Peace of Paris. France ceded 
to England Canada and all her possessions in North America east 
of the Mississippi River, save New Orleans and a little adjoining 
land (which, along with the French territory west of the Missis- 
sippi, had already been given to Spain), and two little islands in 
the neighborhood of Newfoundland, which she was allowed to 
retain to dry fish on. She also withdrew from India as a political 
rival of England. England's supremacy in the colonial world 
and her mastery of the sea were now firmly established. This 
position, notwithstanding severe losses of which we shall speak 
immediately, she has maintained up to the present day. 

877. The American Revolution (1 775-1 783). — The French 
and Indian War was the prelude to the War of American Inde- 
pendence. The overthrow of the French power in America made 
the English colonists less dependent than hitherto upon the 
mother country, since this removed their only dangerous rival 
and enemy on the continent. Clear-sighted statesmen had pre- 
dicted that when the colonists no longer needed England's help 
against the French they would sever the bonds uniting them to 
the home land, if at any time these bonds chafed them. 

And very soon the bonds did chafe. A majority in Parliament, 
thinking that the colonists should help pay the expenses of colo- 
nial defense, insisted upon taxing them. The colonists maintained 
that they could be justly taxed only through their own legislative 
assemblies. The British government refusing to acknowledge this 
principle, the colonists took up arms in defense of those rights 
and liberties which their fathers had won with so hard a struggle 
from English kings on English soil. 

France seized the opportunity presented by the war to avenge 
herself upon England for the loss of Canada, and gave aid to 
the colonists. Spain and Holland also were both drawn into the 

attacked the English fort and factory at Calcutta, and having secured one hundred 
and forty-six prisoners, thrust them into a contracted guardroom which was provided 
with only two small grated windows, — what in the story of India is known as "the 
Black Hole of Calcutta." During the course of a sultry night all but twenty-three 
of the unfortunate prisoners died of suffocation. It was in response to the cry which 
arose for vengeance that Robert Clive was sent from Madras to succor Bengal. 



LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE OF IRELAND 623 

struggle, fighting against their old-time rival and foe. The war 
was ended by the Peace of Paris (1783). England acknowledged 
the independence of the thirteen colonies, — and a Greater Eng- 
land began its separate career in the New World. 

878. Legislative Independence of Ireland (1782). — While the 
war in America was going on, the Irish, taking advantage of the 
embarrassment of the English government, demanded legislative 
independence. Since the Norman period Ireland had had a Par- 
liament of her own, but it was at this time subordinate to the 
English Parliament, which asserted the right to bind Ireland by 
its laws. This the Anglo- Irish patriots strenuously resisted and 
drew up a Declaration of Rights wherein they demanded the 
legislative independence of Ireland. Fear of a revolt led Eng- 
land to grant the demands of the patriots and acknowledge the 
independence of the Irish Parliament (1782). 

879. The Abolition of the Slave Trade. — Intimately con- 
nected with the great religious revival led by the Wesleys and 
Whitefield were certain philanthropic movements which hold a 
prominent place in the history of the moral and social life not 
only of England but of humanity. The most noteworthy of 
these was that resulting in the abolition of the African slave 
trade. 

In the eighteenth century England was the chief slave-trading 
nation in the world. There was at that time little or no moral 
disapproval of this iniquitous traffic. But one effect of the reli- 
gious revival was the calling into existence of much genuine phil- 
anthropic feeling. This sentiment expressed itself in a movement 
for the abolition of the inhuman trade. 

The leaders of the movement were Thomas Clarkson (1760- 
1846) and William Wilberforce (1759-1833). Finally, in 1807, 
after twenty years of agitation, a law was passed abolishing the 
trade. 7 This signaled as great a moral victory as ever was won 
in the English Parliament, for it was the aroused moral sentiment 

7 Denmark had abolished the traffic in 1802. In the United States the importa- 
tion of slaves was illegal after 1S08. Before 1820 most civilized states had placed 
the trade under the ban. 



624 ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

of the nation which was the main force that carried the reform 
measure through the Houses. 8 

880. The Industrial Revolution. — We turn now from the 
political, religious, and moral realms to the industrial domain. 
In this sphere of English life the latter part of the eighteenth 
century witnessed a wonderful revolution. In order to get the 
right point of view here, it is necessary that we first note the 
remarkable fact that though civilization during historic times had 
made great advances on many lines and in many domains, still 
in the industrial realm it had remained almost stationary from 
the dawn of history. At the middle of the eighteenth century all 
the industrial arts were being carried on in practically the same 
way that they were followed six or seven thousand years before 
in ancient Egypt and Babylonia. 

Suddenly all this was changed by a few inventions. About 1767 
Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny. From the beginning 
of history, indeed from a period lost in the obscurity of prehistoric 
times, all the thread used in weaving had been made by twisting 
each thread separately. The spinning jenny, when perfected, 
with a single attendant twisted hundreds of threads at once. 
Within twenty years from the time of this invention there were 
between four and five million spindles in use in England. 

It was now possible to produce thread in unlimited quantities. 
The next thing needed was improved machinery for weaving it 
into cloth. This was soon provided by Cartwright's power loom 
(1785). The next requisite was motive power to run the new 
machinery. At just this time James Watt brought out his improve- 
ment of the steam engine (1785). In its ruder form it had been 
used in the mines ; now it was introduced into the factories. 

The primary forces of the great industrial revolution — the spin- 
ning jenny, the power loom, and the steam engine — were now 
at work. The application of the steam engine to transportation 
purposes gave the world the steam railroad and the steamship. 

8 Another important humanitarian movement of the century was that of prison 
reform. This was effected chiefly through the labors of a single person, the philan- 
thropist John Howard (i 726-1 790), who devoted his life to effecting a reform in 
prison conditions and discipline. 



THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 625 

These inventions in the industrial realm mark an epoch in the 
history of civilization. We have to go back to prehistoric times 
to find in this domain any inventions or discoveries like them in 
their import for human progress. There is nothing between Menes 
in Egypt and George III in England with which to compare them. 
The discovery of fire, the invention of metal tools, and the domes- 
tication of animals and plants (sees. 7-9), — these inventions and 
achievements of prehistoric man are alone worthy, in their effects 
upon human society, of being placed alongside them. 

881. Import to England of the Industrial Revolution. — The 
great industrial revolution exerted a determining influence upon 
the course and issue of the French Revolution and of the Napo- 
leonic Wars which grew out of it. It armed England, through the 
wealth it created, for the great fight, and thus enabled her to play 
the important part she did in that period of titanic struggle. " It 
is our improved steam engine," says Lord Jeffrey in his eulogy of 
Watt (written in 1819), "which has fought the battles of Europe 
and exalted and sustained through the late tremendous contest 
the political greatness of our land." It was the steam engine 
which created the wealth which England used so lavishly in car- 
rying on the fight against Napoleon, and which did more perhaps 
than any other force in giving direction to the course of events 
during the years of his domination. 

882. Conclusion. — With the French Revolution we reach a 
period in which English history must be regarded from the view- 
point of France. Indeed, for the space of half a generation after 
the rise of Napoleon to power, all European history becomes 
largely biographical and centers about that unique personality. 
Consequently we shall drop the story of English history at this 
point and let it blend with the story of the Revolution and that 
of the Napoleonic Empire. 

All that we need here notice is that the Napoleonic Wars, in 
their Anglo-French phase, were essentially a continuation — and 
the end — of the second Hundred Years' War between England 
and France. Napoleon, having seized supreme power in France, 
endeavored to destroy England's commercial supremacy and to 



626 ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

regain for France that position in the colonial world from which 
she had been thrust by England. But this tremendous struggle, 
like all the others in which England had engaged with her ancient 
foe, — save the one in which she lost her American colonies, — 
only resulted, as we shall see later, in bringing into her hands 
additional colonial possessions, and in placing her naval power 
and commercial supremacy on a firmer basis than ever before. 

Selections from the Sources. — Henderson, Side Lights on English 
History, pp. 214-283 ; Kendall, Source-Book, chaps, xvi-xviii, particularly 
Extract No. 1 11, "A View of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century," by Swift. 
For the slave trade, see Clarkson, The History of the Rise, Progress, and 
Accomplishment of the Abolition of the Slave Trade by the British Parlia- 
ment. Clarkson was himself a main instrument in bringing about the great 
reform. Robinson, Readings in European PJistory, vol. ii, pp. 336-356. 

Secondary Works. — For the most suggestive short work on the period, 
turn to Seeley, J. R., The Expansion of England. Written on somewhat 
similar lines is Caldecott, A., English Colonization and Empire, chaps, 
iii-v. LECKY, W. E. H., History of England in the Eighteenth Century, 
7 vols., is the best comprehensive work. For the naval history of the period, 
see Ma han, A. T., The Influence of Sea Power upoji History, chaps, v-xiv. 

Biographies : Morley, J., Walpole ; Southey, R., Life of Wesley; 
Green, W. D., William Pitt, Earl of Chatha?n ; Harrison, F., Chatham; 
Macaulay, T. B., Essays on Horace Walpole, the Earl of Chatham (two 
essays), Lord Clive, and Warren Hastings. 

For the growth of the English Cabinet : Blauvelt, M. T., The Devel- 
opment of Cabinet Government in England; and Jenks, E., Parliamentary 
England. For the rise of Methodism : Overton, J. H., The Evangelical 
Revival in the Eighteenth Century. For the French and English in America : 
Fiske, J., New England and New France, chaps, vii-x ; and Parkman, 
F., Montcalm and Wolfe, 2 vols. For the conflict between England and 
her American colonies : Lecky, W. E. H., The American Revolution (ed. 
by James Albert Woodburn). For industrial and social England: Cheyney, 
E. P., An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England, 
chap. viii. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The "Assiento" and the slave trade 
in the seventeenth century. 2. The Scotch project of a Panama colony. 
3. The South Sea Bubble. 4. The abolition of the slave trade. 5. John 
Howard and prison reform. 



II. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE 
NAPOLEONIC ERA 

(1789-1815) 

CHAPTER LXVII 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

(1 789-1 799) 

I. Causes of the Revolution; the States- 
General OF 1789 

883. Introductory. — The French Revolution was the revolt of 
the French people against royal despotism and class privilege. 
"Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" was the motto of the Revo- 
lution. In the name of these principles great crimes were indeed 
committed ; but these excesses of the Revolution are not to be 
confounded with its true spirit and" aims. The French people in 
1789 contended for substantially the same principles that the 
English people defended in 1642 and 1688, and that the Ameri- 
can colonists maintained in 1776. It is only as we view them 
in this light that we can feel a sympathetic interest in the men 
and events of this tumultuous period of French history. 

884. Causes of the Revolution. — Chief among the causes of 
the French Revolution were the abuses and extravagances of the 
Bourbon monarchy, the unjust privileges enjoyed by the nobil- 
ity and the higher clergy, the wretched condition of the poorer 
classes of the people, and the revolutionary character and spirit 
of French philosophy and literature. To these must be added, as 
a proximate cause, the influence of the American Revolution. 
We will speak briefly of these several matters. 

885. The Bourbon Monarchy. — We simply repeat what we 
have already learned when we say that the authority of the French 

627 



628 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

crown under the Bourbons had become unbearably despotic and 
oppressive. The life and property of every person in France were 
at the arbitrary disposal of the king. Persons were thrown into 
prison without even knowing the offense for which they were 
arrested. The taxes were imposed by the authority of the king 
alone. They struck the poor rather than the rich, and, in con- 
sequence of a miserable and corrupt system of collection, not 
more than one half or two thirds of the money wrung from the 
taxpayers ever reached the royal treasury. The public money 
thus gathered was squandered in maintaining a court the scan- 
dalous extravagances and debaucheries of which would shame 
a Turkish sultan. 

886. The Nobility. — The French nobility on the eve of the 
Revolution numbered probably between twenty and thirty thou- 
sand families. Although owning one fifth of the soil of France 
and exercising feudal rights over much of the land belonging to 
peasant proprietors, still these nobles paid scarcely any taxes. 

The higher nobility were chiefly the pensioners of the king, 
the ornaments of his court, living in riotous luxury at Paris and 
Versailles. Stripped of their ancient power, they still retained all 
the old pride and arrogance of their order, and clung tenaciously 
to all their feudal privileges and exemptions. 

887. The Clergy. — The higher clergy formed a decayed feudal 
hierarchy. A third of the lands of France was in their hands, 
and this immense property was almost wholly exempt from taxa- 
tion. The bishops and abbots were usually drawn from the ranks 
of the nobility, being attracted to the service of the Church rather 
by its enormous revenues and the social distinction conferred by 
its offices than by the inducements of piety. They owed their 
position to royal appointment, and commonly spent their princely 
incomes in luxurious life at court. 

The lower clergy, made up in the main of humble and devoted 
parish priests, were drawn largely from the peasant class, and shared 
their poverty. Their salaries were mere pittances compared with 
the princely incomes enjoyed by the bishops and abbots. They 
were naturally in sympathy with the lower classes to which by 



THE COMMONS, OR THIRD ESTATE 629 

birth they belonged, and shared their feelings of dislike towards 
the great prelates. 

888. The Commons, or Third Estate. — Below the two privileged 
orders stood the nonprivileged commons, known as the Tiers 
Etat, or Third Estate. This class embraced all the nation aside 
from the nobility and the clergy, — that is to say, the great bulk 
of the population. It numbered probably about twenty-five million 
souls. The order was divided into two chief classes, namely, the 
bourgeoisie, or middle class, and the peasantry. 

The peasants constituted the great majority of the Third Estate. 
The condition of most of them could hardly have been worse. 
Especially vexatious were the old feudal regulations to which they 
were subjected in the cultivation of the soil. Thus they were for- 
bidden to fence their fields for the protection of their crops, as 
the fences interfered with the lord's progress in the hunt; and 
they were even prohibited from cultivating their fields at certain 
seasons, as this disturbed the nesting partridges. Being kept in 
a state of abject poverty, a failure of their crops reduced the 
French tenants to absolute starvation. It was not an unusual 
thing to find women and children dead in the woods or along 
the roadways. 

One who saw all this misery thus pictures the appearance 
of the peasantry : " One sees certain fierce animals, male and 
female, scattered through the fields ; they are black, livid, and 
burned by the sun, and attached to the soil, which they dig up 
and stir with indomitable industry ; they have what is like an 
articulate voice, and when they rise up on their feet they show a 
human face, — in truth they are human beings. They retire at 
night into dens, where they live on black bread and water and 
roots ; they save other men the trouble of sowing and delving 
and harvesting, and hence deserve not to lack of this bread 
which they have sown." x 

It is true that during the eighteenth century the condition of 
perhaps the majority of the French peasants had been much 
improved, and that on the eve of the Revolution their state was 

1 La Bruyere, Les Caracteres, " De l'Homme," § cxxviii. 



630 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 



much more tolerable than that of the peasantry in the countries 
of Central and Eastern Europe. Yet never had a more rebellious 
spirit stirred in the French peasantry than at just this time. And 
the reason of this was not because the system under which they 
lived was " more severe, but more odious " than ever before, — 
more odious because the peasant of 1789, being more intelligent, 
realized more keenly the wrongs he suffered, and knew better 
his rights as a man than did the ignorant, stolid peasant of the 
previous century. 

889. The Revolutionary Spirit of French Philosophy. — French 
philosophy in the eighteenth century was skeptical and revolu- 
tionary. The names of the great 
writers Voltaire and Rousseau 2 
suggest at once its tone and spirit. 
Voltaire (1694— 1778) gave ex- 
pression, forcible and striking, to 
what the people were vaguely 
thinking and feeling. He has 
been well called " the magician 
of the art of writing." He had 
a most marvelous faculty of con- 
densing thought ; putting whole 
philosophies in an epigram, he 
supplied the French people with 
proverbs for a century. His aim 
was to make justice and reason 
dominant in human affairs. He disbelieved in revealed religion ; 8 
he would have men follow simply their inner sense of what is right 
and reasonable. His writings stirred all Europe as well as all 
France, and did so much to prepare the minds and hearts of men 
for the Revolution that in one sense there was much truth in his 




Fig. 146. — Voltaire. (From a 
statue by Houdoii) 



2 Other names are Montesquieu (1689-1755), whose most important work is 
entitled The Spirit of Laws, and Diderot (1713-1784) and D'Alembert (1717-17S3), 
who were the chief of the so-called Encyclopedists, the compilers of an immense 
work in twenty-eight volumes. 

3 By some of Voltaire's disciples his doctrines were developed into atheism ; but 
Voltaire himself was a deist, combating alike atheism and Christianity. 



INFLUENCE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 63 1 

declaration, " I have accomplished more in my day than either 
Luther or Calvin." 

Rousseau (1712-1778), like Voltaire, had neither faith nor hope 
in existing institutions. Society and government seemed to him 
contrivances designed by the strong for the enslavement of the 
weak : " Man was born free and is everywhere in chains " is the 
burden of his complaint. He would have men give up their arti- 
ficial life in society and return to the simplicity of what he called 
"a state of nature." He declared that untutored tribes are hap- 
pier than civilized men. He drew such an idyllic picture of the 
life of man in a state of nature that Voltaire, after reading his 
treatise thereon, wrote him that it filled him with a longing to go 
on all fours. 

The tendency and effect of this skeptical philosophy was to 
create hatred and contempt for the institutions of both State 
and Church, and to foster discontent with the established order 
of things. 

890. Influence of the American Revolution. — Not one of the 
least potent of the proximate causes of the French Revolution 
was the successful establishment of the American republic. The 
republican simplicity of the newborn state, contrasting so strongly 
with the extravagance and artificiality of the court at Versailles, 
elicited the unbounded admiration of the French people. In this 
young republic of the Western world they saw realized the Arcadia 
of their philosophy. It was no longer a dream. They themselves 
had helped to make it real. Here the rights of man had been 
recovered and vindicated. And now this liberty which the French 
people had helped the American colonists to secure, they were 
impatient to see France herself enjoy. 

891. End of the Reign of Louis XV; "After us the Deluge." 
— The long-gathering tempest is now ready to break over France. 
Louis XV died in 1 774. In the early part of his reign his subjects 
had affectionately called him " the Well-Beloved," but long before 
his death all their early love and admiration had been turned into 
hatred and contempt. Besides being despotically inclined, the 
king was indolent and scandalously profligate. During twenty 



632 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

years of his reign, as we have already learned, he was wholly under 
the influence of the notorious Madame de Pompadour (sec. 811). 
The inevitable issue of this orgy of folly and extravagance 
seems to have been clearly enough perceived by the chief actors 
in it, as is shown by that reckless phrase attributed to the king 
and his favorite, — "After us the Deluge." And after them the 
Deluge indeed did come. The near thunders of the approaching 
tempest could already be heard when Louis XV lay down to die. 

892. The Accession of Louis XVI (1774); Financial Troubles; 
the Meeting of the Notables (1787). — Louis XV left the tottering 
throne to his grandson, Louis XVI, then only twenty years of 
age. He had recently been married to the beautiful and light- 
hearted Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, daughter of 
the empress-queen Maria Theresa. 

How to raise money was the urgent and anxious question with 
the government. France was on the verge of bankruptcy. The 
king called to his side successively Turgot, Necker, and other 
eminent statesmen as his ministers of finance ; but their policies 
and remedies availed little or nothing. The traditions of the 
court and the heartless selfishness of the privileged classes ren- 
dered reform in taxation and efficient retrenchment impossible. 
The national debt grew constantly larger. 

In 1787 the king summoned the Notables, a body composed 
chiefly of great lords and prelates, who had not been called to 
advise with the king since the year 1626. But miserable coun- 
selors were they all. Refusing to give up any of their feudal privi- 
leges, or to tax the property of their own orders that the enormous 
public burdens which were crushing the commons might be light- 
ened, their coming together resulted in nothing. 

893. The Calling of the States-General ; the Elections ; the 
Cahiers. — As a last resort it was resolved to summon the united 
wisdom of the nation, to call together the States-General, the 
almost-forgotten national assembly, composed of representatives 
of the three estates, — the nobility, the clergy, and the commons. 

In December, 1788, the king by proclamation called upon the 
French people to elect deputies to this body, which had not met 



MEETING OF THE STATES-GENERAL 633 

to deliberate upon the affairs of France for a period of one hun- 
dred and seventy-five years. Divine-right royalty had seen no 
necessity hitherto of seeking counsel of the people. 

In connection with the elections there had been made by the 
king's advisers a momentous decision, one which practically in- 
volved the fate of the monarchy. The commons had insisted 
upon being allowed double representation, that is, as many depu- 
ties as both the other orders, and they had been authorized to 
send up six hundred deputies, while the nobility and the clergy 
were each to have only three hundred representatives. 

The electors had been instructed to draw up statements of 
grievances and suggestions of reform for the information and 
guidance of the States- General. These documents, which are 
known as cahiers, form a valuable record of the France of 1789, 

— of the grievances of the people and of their ideas of reform. 
One demand Gommon to them all is that the nation through its 
representatives shall have part in the government. Those of the 
Third Estate call for the abolition of feudal rents and services, and 
for the equalization among the orders of the burdens of taxation. 
In a word, they were petitions for equality and justice. 

894. The States-General changed into the National Assembly. 

— On the 5th of May, 1789, a memorable date, the deputies to 
the States-General met at Versailles. Thither the eyes of the 
nation were now turned in hope and expectancy. Surely if the 
redemption of France could be worked out by human wisdom it 
would now be effected. At the very outset a dispute arose between 
the privileged orders and the commons respecting the manner of 
voting. It had been the ancient custom of the body for each 
order to deliberate in its own hall, and for the vote upon all ques- 
tions to be by orders. 4 But the commons now demanded that 
this old custom should be ignored, and that the voting should 
be by individuals ; for should the vote be taken by orders, then 
their double representation would be a mere mockery, and the 

4 That is to say, the majority of the representatives of each order decided the 
vote for that order, and then two of these majority votes registered the decision of 
the whole body of deputies. 



634 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

clergy and nobility by combining could always outvote them. For 
five weeks the quarrel kept everything in a deadlock. 

Finally the commons took a decisive, revolutionary step. They 
declared themselves the National Assembly, and then invited the 
other two orders to join them in their deliberations, giving them 
to understand that if they did not choose to do so they should 
proceed to the consideration of public affairs without them. 

King, nobles, and prelates were alarmed at the bold attitude 
assumed by the commons. The king, in helpless alarm, suspended 
the sitting of the rebellious deputies and guarded the door of 
their hall. But the commons, gathering in the tennis court, a 
great barnlike building, bound themselves by oath not to separate 
until they had framed a constitution for France. 

Soon the commons were joined by a few of the nobility and a 
larger number of the deputies of the clergy. It looked as though 
the three orders were going to coalesce. The court party labored 
to prevent this. A royal sitting, or joint meeting of the three 
estates, was held. The king read a speech in which, assuming the 
tone of an English Stuart, he admonished the commons not to 
attack the privileges of the other orders, and then commanded the 
deputies of the three orders to retire to their separate halls. The 
clergy and the nobility obeyed. The commons kept their seats. 

At this juncture the master of ceremonies somewhat pertly said 
to them, " You heard the king' s command ? ' ' Thereupon Mirabeau , 
one of the leaders of the commons, a man of " Jupiter-like " mien 
and tone, turned upon the messenger with these memorable words : 
" Go, tell those who sent you that we are here by the command 
of the people, and here we shall stay until driven out at the point 
of the bayonet." The poor official was so frightened at the ter- 
rible Mirabeau that he straightway sought the door, withdrawing 
from the assembly, however, backwards, as he had been wont to 
do in retiring from the presence of the king. His instincts were 
right. He was indeed in the presence of the sovereign, ■ — the new- 
born sovereign of France. 

The triumph of the Third Estate was soon complete. Real- 
izing that it was futile and dangerous longer to oppose the will of 



PROMINENT MEN IN THE ASSEMBLY 



635 



the commons, the king ordered those of the nobles and clergy 
who had not yet joined them to do so, and they obeyed. The 
States-General thus became in reality the National Assembly. 



II. The National or Constituent Assembly 
(June 17, 1789-Sept. 30, 1 791) 

895. Prominent Men in the Assembly. — Lamartine declares 
that the National Assembly was " the most imposing body of men 
that ever represented not only France but the human race." It 
was impressive not so much from the 
ability or genius of its individual mem- 
bers, though the picked men of France 
were here gathered, as through the 
tremendous interests it held in its 
hands. Yet there were in the Assem- 
bly a number of men whose names 
cannot be passed in silence. 

Among the nobility was the patri- 
otic Lafayette, who had won the 
admiration of his countrymen by 
splendid services rendered the strug- 
gling republic in the New World. His 
influence at this time was probably FlG " M7-Mirabeau. (After 

a painting by L. Massard) 
greater than that of any other man. 

Belonging by birth to the same order, but sitting now as a 
deputy of the commons, was Mirabeau, a large-headed, dissolute, 
unscrupulous man, an impetuous orator, the mouthpiece of the 
Revolution. But though violent in speech he was moderate in 
counsel. He wanted to right the wrongs of the people, yet with- 
out undermining the throne. He wanted reform but not revolu- 
tion. He aspired to be a leader, but no one at first had confidence 
in him, such had been his past life. Arthur Young said of him, 
"His character is a dead weight upon him." Yet, notwithstand- 
ing his lack of private virtues, Mirabeau's qualities of leadership 
at length gained for him recognition, and he was at one time 




636 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

president of the National Assembly. But his life of dissipation 
had undermined his constitution. He died in 1791, despairing 
of the future for France. 

Still another eminent representative of the commons was Abbe 
Sieves, a person of wonderful facility in framing constitutions. 
France will have much need of such talent, as we shall see. 
Sieyes had recently stirred all France by a remarkable pamphlet 
entitled What is the Third Estate ? (Qu'est-ce que le Tiers Etat?) 
He answers, "Everything!" "What has it been hitherto?" 
"Nothing!" "What does it wish?" "To be something." 

896 . Origin of the Revolutionary Commune of Paris ; the National 
Guards. — During all these weeks Paris was in a seething ferment. 
The municipal authorities showing themselves irresolute, the lead- 
ing men of the different sections or wards of the city ousted them, 
and then, forming themselves into a sort of provisional city coun- 
cil, assumed the government of the capital. Thus came into exist- 
ence the revolutionary Commune of Paris, a body whose power 
came to overshadow that of the National Assembly itself. 

Under the direction of the self-constituted Commune the inhabit- 
ants of the capital now formed themselves into a sort of police 
force. Other cities throughout France imitated Paris and organ- 
ized their militia. These hastily recruited popular bodies took the 
name of National Guards," and under that title were destined to 
act a most conspicuous part in the scenes of the Revolution. 

897. Storming of the Bastille (July 14, 1789). — Thus all Paris 
was ready to burst into conflagration. The news of the dismissal 
by the king of Necker, a minister in whom the people had great 
confidence, kindled the inflammable mass. On the morning of 
July 14 a great mob assaulted the Bastille, the old state prison 
and, in the eyes of the people, the emblem of royal despotism. 
In a few hours the fortress was in the hands of the people. The 
curious crowds ransacked every corner of the grim old dungeon, 
liberating the seven prisoners they found in its gloomy cells. 
The governor and others of the defenders of the place were 
murdered, their heads placed at the end of pikes, and thus borne 
through the streets. The walls of the hated old prison were razed 



THE ABOLITION OF PRIVILEGES 637 

to the ground. The key was sent by Lafayette to Washington " as 
a trophy of the spoils of despotism." In a letter accompanying 
the gift, Lafayette wrote : " That the principles of America opened 
the Bastille is not to be doubted, and therefore the key goes to the 
right place." 5 

The destruction by the Paris mob of the Bastille was the death 
knell not only of Bourbon despotism in France but of royal 
tyranny everywhere. The intelligence of the event was received 
with rejoicing in America and wherever the ideas and principles 
of self-government were entertained. When the news reached 
England, the great statesman Fox, perceiving its significance for 
liberty, exclaimed, " How much is this the greatest event that 
ever happened in the world, and how much the best ! " 

Louis XVI regarded the matter with different feelings. When 
news of the affair was carried to him at Versailles he exclaimed, 
" What, Rebellion I " " No, sire," was the response ; " it is Revo- 
liction" The great French Revolution had indeed begun. 

898. The Abolition of Privileges (August 4, 1789). — As the 
news of the storming of the Bastille spread through France the 
peasantry in many districts, following the example set them by 
the capital, destroyed the local bastilles and sacked and burned 
the castles of the nobles. The main object of the peasants was to 
destroy the title deeds in the archives of the manor houses, since 
it was by virtue of these charters that the lords exercised so many 
rights over the lands of the peasants and exacted so many teasing 
and iniquitous tolls and dues. This terrorism caused the begin- 
ning of what is known as the emigration of the nobles, that is, 
their flight beyond the frontiers of France. 

The storm without hastened matters within the National Assem- 
bly at Versailles. The privileged orders now realized that, to save 
themselves from the fury of the masses, they must give up those 
vexatious feudal privileges which were a main cause of the suf- 
ferings and the anger of the people. Rising in the tribune, two 
liberal-minded members of the nobility represented that they 
were willing to renounce all their feudal rights and exemptions. 

5 The rusty relic may be seen to-day in a case at Mount Vernon. 



638 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

A contagious enthusiasm was awakened by this act of patriotic 
generosity. The impulsiveness of the Gallic heart was never 
better illustrated. Nobles and priests, crowding to the tribune, 
strove with one another in generous rivalry to see who should 
make the greatest sacrifices in the surrender of rents, tolls, feudal 
dues, and gaming privileges. Thus in a single night much of the 
rubbish of the broken-down feudal system was cleared away. 

899. The Declaration of the Rights of Man (August 26, 1789). 
— After the abolition of the feudal system the next work of the 
National Assembly was the drawing up of a Declaration of the 
Rights of Man. This was in imitation of what had been done 
by the American patriots. 

The dominant notes of the Declaration were (1) the equality of 
men, — "Men are born and remain free and equal" ; (2) the sov- 
ereignty of the people, — "All sovereignty resides essentially in the 
nation"; and (3) the impartial nature of law, — "Law is the ex- 
pression of the general will . . . and should be the same for all." 

900. Nationalization of Church Property (Nov. 2, 1789); the 
Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 12, 1790). — Shortly after 
the promulgation of the Declaration of Rights, a Parisian mob 
fetched the king from Versailles to the capital. Their purpose in 
this was to hold him as a sort of hostage for the good conduct of 
the nobles and the foreign sovereigns while the new constitution 
was being prepared by the Assembly. 

For two years following this there was a comparative lull in the 
storm of the Revolution. Meanwhile the National Assembly was 
making sweeping reforms both in State and Church. One of the 
most important of its measures and one far-reaching in its effects 
was the confiscation of the property of the Church. Altogether, 
property consisting largely of lands and worth it is estimated over 
a billion francs was by decree made the property of the nation. 6 

6 It being found impossible to sell at once and at fair prices so large an amount 
of real estate, the Assembly, using the nationalized lands as security, issued against 
them currency notes, called assignats. As almost always happens in such cases, 
inflation of the currency resulted. Fresh issues of notes were made until they became 
quite worthless, as in the case of the Continental notes issued by the Continental 
Congress in the American War of Independence. 



FLIGHT AND ARREST OF THE KING 639 

The nationalization of the property of the Church rendered it 
necessary that the nation should make some provision for the 
support of the clergy. This was done a little later by a decree 
known as the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which provided 
for the support of all ministers of religion by reasonable salaries 
paid by the nation. All the clergy, bishops, and parish priests 
alike were to be chosen by election, and all were to be required 
to take oath to support the new constitution. 

Naturally this conversion of the Church in France into a State 
Church created a schism in the nation. Out of a hundred and 
thirty-four bishops only four would take the prescribed oath. 
From this time on a large section of the French clergy became 
the bitter enemies of the Revolution. 

901. Flight and Arrest of the King (June 20, 1791). — The 
attempt of the king to make his way out of France and join the 
emigrant nobles now gave an entirely new turn to the course of 
the Revolution. Under cover of night the royal family in dis- 
guise left the Tuileries, and by post fled towards the frontier. 
When just a few hours more would have placed the fugitives 
in safety among friends, the Bourbon features of the king be- 
trayed him, and the entire party was arrested and carried back 
to Paris. 

The attempted flight of the royal family was a fatal blow to the 
monarchy. It deepened the growing distrust of the king. The 
people began to talk of a republic. The word was only whispered 
as yet; but it was not long before those who did not shout vocif- 
erously, "Vive la Republiqae > '" were hurried to the guillotine. 

902. The Clubs: Jacobins and Cordeliers. — In order to render 
intelligible the further course of the Revolution we must now speak 
of two clubs, or organizations, which came into prominence about 
this time, and which were destined to become more powerful than 
the Assembly itself, and to be the chief instruments in inaugurat- 
ing the Reign of Terror. These were the societies of the Jacobins 
and the Cordeliers. 7 The objects of these clubs were to watch 

7 The Jacobins were so called from an old convent in which their first meetings were 
held ; the Cordeliers were named after a Franciscan convent where they assembled. 



640 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

for conspiracies of the Royalists and by constant agitation to keep 
alive the flame of the Revolution. 

903. The New Constitution. — The work of the National 
Assembly was now drawing to a close. On the 14th of Sep- 
tember, 1 79 1, the new constitution framed by the body, which 
instrument made the government of France a constitutional mon- 
archy, was solemnly ratified by the king. The National Assembly, 
having sat over two years, then adjourned. The first scene in the 
drama of the French Revolution was ended. 

III. The Legislative Assembly 
(Oct. 1, 1791-Sept. 19, 1792) 

904. The Membership of the Assembly ; the Constitutionalists 
and the Girondins. — The new constitution provided for a na- 
tional legislature to be called the Legislative Assembly. This body 
was made up of several groups or parties, of which we need here 
notice only the Constitutionalists and the Girondins. The Con- 
stitutionalists, as their name implies, supported the new consti- 
tution, being in favor of a limited monarchy. The Girondins, so 
called from the department (the Gironde) whence their most noted 
leaders came, wanted to establish in France a federal republic like 
that just set up in the New World. 

905. Beginning of War with the Old Monarchies (April 20, 
1792). — The kings of Europe were watching with the utmost 
concern the course of events in France. They regarded the 
cause of Louis XVI as their own. If the French people should 
be allowed to overturn the throne of their hereditary sover- 
eign, who any longer would have respect for the divine right 
of kings? 

The warlike preparations of Austria, which had entered into 
an offensive and defensive alliance with Prussia, awakened the 
apprehensions of the Revolutionists, and led the Legislative 
Assembly to declare war against that power. A little later the 
allied armies of the Austrians and Prussians crossed the frontiers 
of France. Thus was taken the first step in a series of wars which 



THE MASSACRE OF THE SWISS GUARDS 641 



were destined to last nearly a quarter of a century, and in which 
France almost single-handed was to struggle against the leagued 
powers of Europe and to illustrate the miracles possible to enthu- 
siasm and genius. 

906. The Massacre of the Swiss Guards (August 10, 1792). — 
The allies at first gained easy victories over the ill-disciplined 
forces of the Legislative Assembly, and the Duke of Brunswick, 
commander of the Prussian army, advanced rapidly upon Paris. 
An insolent proclamation which this general now issued, wherein 










Fig. 148. — The Lion of Lucerne. (From a photograph) 

This celebrated sculpture commemorates the loyalty and faithfulness of the 
Swiss Guards who gave their lives in defense of the royal palace at Paris, 
August 10, 1792. See p. 642, n. 9. 

he ordered the French nation to submit to their king, and threat- 
ened the Parisians with the destruction of their city should any 
harm be done the royal family, drove the French people frantic 
with indignation and rage. 

The first outbreak of the popular fury occurred in Paris. The 
mob of the capital was swollen by the arrival of bands of picked 
men from other parts of France. From the south came the " six 



642 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

hundred Marseillais who knew how to die." They brought with 
them "a better contingent than ten thousand pikemen," — the 
Marseillaise Hymn, the martial song of the Revolution. 8 

On the morning of the 10 th of August the hordes of the city 
were mustered. The Palace of the Tuileries, defended by several 
hundred Swiss soldiers, the remnant .of the royal guard, was 
assaulted. The royal family fled for safety to the hall of the 
Assembly near by. A terrible struggle followed in the corridors 
and upon the grand stairways of the palace. The Swiss stood 
"steadfast as the granite of their Alps." But they were over- 
whelmed at last, and all were killed, either in the building itself 
or in the adjoining courts and streets. 9 

907. The Massacre of September ("Jail Delivery "). — The army 
of the allies hurried on towards the capital to avenge the slaughter 
of the royal guards and to rescue the king. Paris was all excite- 
ment. "We must stop the enemy," cried Danton, "by striking 
terror into the Royalists." To this end the most atrocious meas- 
ures were now adopted. It was resolved that the Royalists con- 
fined in the jails of the capital should be killed. A hundred 
or more men acted as executioners, and to them the prisoners 
were handed over after a hasty examination before self-appointed 
judges. The number of victims of this terrible " September Massa- 
cre," as it is called, is estimated 10 at from eight hundred to fourteen 
hundred. Europe had never before known such a "jail delivery." 
It was the greatest crime of the French Revolution. 

908. Defeat of the Allies. — Meanwhile, in the open field, the 
fortunes of war inclined to the side of the Revolutionists. The 
French army in the north was successful in checking the advance 

8 This famous war song was composed in 1792 by Rouget de l'Isle, a young 
French engineer. 

9 The number of Swiss Guards slain was over seven hundred. Their fidelity 
and devotion are commemorated by one of the most impressive monuments in Europe, 
the so-called " Lion of Lucerne," at Lucerne in Switzerland. In a large recess in a 
cliff a dying lion, pierced by a lance, protects with its paw the Bourbon lilies. The 
wonderfully lifelike figure is cut out of the natural rock. The designer of the 
memorial was the celebrated Danish sculptor Thorwaldsen. 

1° Former estimates are now known to have been exaggerated. See Stephens, 
History of the French Revolution, vol. ii, p. 146. 



PARTIES IN THE CONVENTION 643 

of the allies, and finally at Valmy (Sept. 20, 1792) succeeded in 
inflicting upon them a decisive defeat, which caused their hasty 
retreat beyond the frontiers of France. The day of this victory 
the Legislative Assembly came to an end, and the same day the 
National Convention assembled. 



IV. The National Convention 

(Sept. 20, 1792-Oct. 26, 1795) 

909. Parties in the Convention. — The Convention, consisting of 
seven hundred and forty-nine deputies, among whom was the cele- 
brated freethinker, Thomas Paine, embraced two active groups, 
the Girondins and the Mountainists, the latter being so named 
from the circumstance that they sat on the upper benches in the 
Assembly hall. There were no monarchists; all were republicans. 
No one dared to speak of a monarchy. 

It was the Mountainists who were to shape the measures of the 
Convention. Their leaders were Danton and Robespierre, deputies 
of Paris. The party was inferior in numbers to that of the Giron- 
dins, but was superior in energy and daring, and moreover was 
backed by the Parisian mob. 

910. The Establishment of the Republic (Sept. 21, 1792); 
Beginning of the Revolutionary Propaganda. — Almost the first act 
of the Convention was to abolish the monarchy. The motion for 
the abolition of royalty was not even discussed. " What need is 
there for discussion," exclaimed a delegate, " where all are agreed? 
Courts are the hotbed of crime, the focus of corruption ; the his- 
tory of kings is the martyrology of nations." 

The day following the establishment of the Republic (Sept. 22, 
1792) was made the beginning of a new era, the first day of the 
Year I. That was to be regarded as the natal day of Liberty. 
A little later, incited by the success of the French armies, the 
Convention called upon all nations to rise against despotism, and 
pledged the aid of France to any people wishing to secureireedom. 

This call to the peoples of Europe to rise against their kings 
and to set up republican governments converted the revolutionary 



644 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

movement in France into a propaganda, and naturally made more 
implacable than ever the hatred toward the Revolution felt by all 
lovers and beneficiaries of the old order of things. 

911. Trial and Execution of the King (Jan. 21, 1793). — The 
next work of the Convention was the trial and execution of the 
king. He was brought before the bar of that body, charged with 
having conspired with the enemies of France, of having opposed 
the will of the people, and of having caused the massacre of the 
10th of August. The sentence of the Convention was immediate 
death. On Jan. 21,1 793, the unfortunate monarch, after a last sad 
interview with his wife and children, was conducted to the scaffold. 

912. Coalition against France; the Counter-Revolution in La 
Vendee. — The regicide, together with the propaganda decree of 
the preceding year, awakened among all the old monarchies of 
Europe the most bitter hostility against the French Revolutionists. 
The act was interpreted as a threat against all kings. A grand 
coalition, embracing England, Austria, Prussia, and other states, 
was formed to crush the republican movement. Armies aggre- 
gating more than a quarter of a million of men threatened France 
at once on every frontier. 

While thus beset with foes without, the Republic was threat- 
ened with even more dangerous enemies within. The people of 
La Vendue, in Western France, where the peasants were angered 
at the conscription decrees of the Convention, and where there 
was still a strong sentiment of loyalty to the Church and the 
monarchy, rose in revolt against the Revolutionists. 

913. Creation of the Revolutionary Tribunal (March 10, 1793) 
and of the Committee of Public Safety (April 6, 1793). — The 
defeat of the French armies in the north and the advance of the 
allies caused the greatest excitement among the Parisian popu- 
lace, who now demanded that the Convention should overawe 
the domestic enemies of the Revolution by the establishment 
of a judicial dictatorship, a sort of tribunal which should take 
cognizance of all crimes against the Republic. 

Danton, while acknowledging the injustice that the summary 
processes of such a court might do to many unjustly suspected, 



THE FALL OF THE GIRONDINS 645 

justified its establishment by arguing that in time of peace society 
lets the guilty escape rather than harm the innocent ; but in 
times of public danger it should rather strike down the innocent 
than allow the guilty to escape. It was on this principle that 
France was to be governed for one terrible year. 

A little later was organized what was called the Committee of 
Public Safety, consisting of nine persons, members of the Con- 
vention. It was invested with dictatorial authority. The vast 
powers wielded by the committee were delegated to it for a single 
month only, but were renewed from month to month. 

We must bear in mind the character of these two bodies in 
order to follow intelligently the subsequent events of the Revo- 
lution, and to understand how the atrocious tyranny of the Reign 
of Terror was exercised and maintained. 

914. The Fall of the Girondins (June 2, 1793). — Still gloomier 
tidings came from every quarter, — news of reverses to the armies 
of the Republic in front of the allies, and of successes of the 
counter-revolutionists in La Vendee. The Mountainists in the Con- 
vention, supported by the rabble of Paris, urged the most extreme 
measures. They proposed that the carriages of the wealthy should 
be seized and used for carrying soldiers to the seat of war, and 
that the expenses of the government should be met by forced 
contributions from the rich. 

The Girondins opposed these measures. The Parisian mob 
filled the city with cries of " Down with the Girondins ! " "If 
the person of the people's representative be violated," warningly 
exclaimed one of the Girondin orators, " Paris will be destroyed, 
and soon the stranger will be compelled to inquire on which 
bank of the Seine the city stood." 

The Girondins were finally overborne. An immense mob sur- 
rounded the hall of the Convention and demanded that their 
chiefs be given up as enemies of the Republic. Thirty-one of 
their leaders were surrendered and placed under arrest, a pre- 
liminary step to the speedy execution of many of them during 
the opening days of the Reign of Terror. 



646 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

The Reign of Terror {September, iygj-July, i"JQ4) 

915. The Great Committee of Public Safety; its Principle of 
Government. — The perilous situation created by domestic in- 
surrection and foreign invasion demanded a strong executive. 
It was created. The Convention reorganized the Committee of 
Public Safety, which now became what is known as the Great 
Committee of Public Safety, suspended the constitution, and 
invested the new board with supreme executive authority. For 
almost a full year the twelve men ■ — of whom Robespierre was 
the most conspicuous — constituting this body exercised absolute 
power over the life and property of every person in France. The 
Committee's principle of government was simple. It governed 
by terror. Its rule is known as the Reign of Terror. 

916. The Execution of Marie Antoinette (Oct. 16, 1793), of 
the Girondins (Oct. 31, 1793), and of Madame Roland (Nov. 8, 
1 793)- — One of the earliest victims of the guillotine under the 
organized Terror was the queen. The attention of the Revo- 
lutionists had been turned anew to the remaining members of 
the royal family by reason of the recognition by the allies of the 
Dauphin as king of France, 11 and by the recent alarming suc- 
cesses of their armies. The queen, who had now borne nine 
months' imprisonment, was brought before the terrible Revolu- 
tionary Tribunal and condemned to the guillotine. A hideous 
mob of men and women howled with savage delight around the 
cart which bore the unhappy queen to the scaffold. 

The guillotine was now fed daily with the best blood of France. 
Two weeks after the execution of the queen twenty of the chiefs 
of the Girondins, who had been kept in confinement since their 
arrest in the Convention, were pushed beneath the knife. Hun- 
dreds of others followed. 

Most illustrious of all the victims after the queen was Madame 
Roland, who was accused of being the friend of the Girondins. 

11 The Dauphin, a mere child of eight years, was recognized as king of France by 
several of the great powers in January, 1793. He was at this time a prisoner in tne 
Temple. He died in 1795, his death having been caused or at least hastened by the 
brutal ill usage he received at the hands of his jailers. 



THE NEW CALENDAR 647 

An incident at the scaffold is related as a memorial of her. 
As she was about to lay her head beneath the knife, her eye, it 
is said, chanced to fall upon the statue of Liberty which stood 
near the scaffold. "O Liberty ! " she exclaimed; "what crimes 
are committed in thy name ! " 

It has ever been so. The worst crimes that stain the pages 
of history have been committed in the name of that which is 
holiest, — in the name of Liberty, or of Justice, or of Religion. 

917. The New Calendar. — While the Revolutionary Tribunal 
was clearing out of the way the enemies of the Republic by the 
quick processes of the guillotine, the Convention was busy reforming 
the ancient institutions and customs of the land. They hated these 
as having been established by kings and aristocrats to enhance 
their own importance and to enslave the masses. They proposed 
to sweep these things all aside and give the world a fresh start. 

A new uniform system of weights and measures, known as the 
metric, had already been planned by the National Assembly: a 
new mode of reckoning time was now introduced. The months 
were given new names, names expressive of the character of each. 
Each month was divided into three periods of ten days each, 
called decades, and each day into ten parts. The tenth day of 
each decade took the place of the old Sabbath. The five odd 
days not provided for in the arrangement were made festival 
days. 

918. Attempt to abolish Christianity (Nov. 7, 1793). — The 
old calendar having been abolished, the Revolutionists next pro- 
ceeded to abolish Christianity. Some of the chiefs of the Com- 
mune of Paris declared that the Revolution should not rest until 
it had " dethroned the King of Heaven as well as the kings of 
earth." They persuaded the Bishop of Paris, Gobel by name, to 
abdicate his office ; and his example was followed by many of the 
clergy throughout the country. 

The churches of Paris and of other cities were now closed, and 
the treasures of their altars and shrines confiscated to the state. 
Even the bells were melted down into cannon. The images 
of the Virgin and of the Christ were torn down, and the busts of 



648 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 



Marat and other patriots set up in their stead. And as the eman- 
cipation of the world was now to be wrought not by the Cross 
but by the guillotine, that instrument took the place of the cru- 
cifix, and was called the " Holy Guillotine." In many places 
all visible symbols of the ancient religion were destroyed ; all 
emblems of hope in some cemeteries were obliterated, and over 
their gates were inscribed the words, " Death is eternal sleep." 

919. Inauguration of the Worship of Reason (Nov. 10, 1793). 
— The madness of the people culminated in the worship of Rea- 
son. A celebrated beauty, personating the Goddess of Reason, 
was set upon the altar of Notre Dame in Paris as an object of 
homage and worship. The example of Paris was followed gen- 
erally throughout France. Churches were converted into temples 
of the new worship. The Sabbath having been abolished, the 
services of the temple were held only up- 
on every tenth day. On that day the 
mayor or some popular leader mounted 
the altar and harangued the people, dwell- 
ing upon the news of the moment, the 
triumphs of the armies of the Republic, 
the glorious achievements of the Revolu- 
tion, and the privilege of living in an era 
when one was oppressed neither by kings 
on earth nor by a King in heaven. 

920. Fall of Hebert and Danton (March 
and April, 1794). — During the progress 
of events the Jacobins had become divided 
into three factions, headed respectively 
by Danton, Robespierre, and Hebert. To 
make his own power supreme, Robespierre 
resolved to crush the other two leaders. Hubert and his party 
were the first to fall, Danton and his adherents working with 
Robespierre to bring about their ruin. Danton and his party were 
the next to follow. The last words of Danton to the executioner 
were, " Show my head to the people ; they do not see the like 
every day." The grim request was granted. 




Fig. 149. — Robespierre 
(From a French print) 



WORSHIP OF THE SUPREME BEING 649 

Robespierre was now supreme. His ambition was attained. 
" He stood alone on the awful eminence of the Holy Mountain." 
But his turn was soon to come. 

921. Worship of the Supreme Being. — One of the first acts 
of Robespierre after he had freed himself from his most virulent 
enemies was to give France a new religion in place of the worship 
of Reason. Robespierre wished to sweep away Christianity as a 
superstition, but he would stop at deism. He did not believe that 
a state could be founded on atheism. " If God did not exist," he 
declared, "it would behoove man to invent Him." 

In a remarkable address delivered before the Convention on 
the 7th of May, 1794, Robespierre eloquently defended the doc- 
trines of God and immortality, and then closed his speech by 
offering for adoption this decree : "(1) The French people recog- 
nize the existence of the Supreme Being and the immortality of 
the soul ; (2) they recognize that the worship most worthy of 
the Supreme Being is the practice of the duties of man ; and 
(3) they put in the first rank of these duties to detest bad faith 
and tyranny, to punish tyrants and traitors, to rescue the unfortu- 
nate, to defend the oppressed, to do to others all the good one can, 
and to be unjust towards none." The Convention adopted the 
resolution with the "utmost enthusiasm." The churches which 
had been converted into temples of the Goddess of Reason were 
now consecrated to the new worship of the Supreme Being. 

922. The Culmination of the Terror at Paris (June and July, 
1794). — At the same time that Robespierre was instituting the 
new worship, the Great Committee of Public Safety, of which he 
was generally regarded as the controlling spirit, was ruling France 
by a terrorism unparalleled since the most frightful days at 
Rome. The prisons of Paris and of the departments were filled 
with suspected persons, until two hundred thousand prisoners were 
crowded into these republican bastilles. At Paris the dungeons 
were emptied of their victims and room made for fresh ones 
by the swift processes of the Revolutionary Tribunal, which in 
mockery of justice caused the prisoners to be brought before its 
bar in companies of ten or fifty or more. Rank or talent was an 



650 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

inexpiable crime. "Were you not a noble?" asked the presi- 
dent of the tribunal of one of the accused. " Yes," was the reply. 
" Enough ; another ! " was the judge's verdict. And so on through 
the long list each day brought before the court. 

The scenes about the guillotine seem mirrored from the In- 
ferno of Dante. Benches were arranged around the scaffold 
and rented to spectators, like seats in a theater. The market 
women of Paris, who were known as "the Furies of the Guillo- 
tine," busied themselves with their knitting while watching the 
changing scenes of the bloody spectacle. In the space of seven 
weeks (June 10— July 27) the number of persons guillotined at Paris 
was thirteen hundred and seventy-six, — an average of over twenty- 
eight a day. 

923. The Terror in the Provinces. — While such was the frightful 
state of things at the capital, matters were even worse in several 
of the provinces. Some of the cities which had been prominent 
centers of the counter-revolution were made a terrible example 
of the vengeance of the Revolutionists. At Nantes the terror 
culminated. The agent here of the Great Committee was one 
Carrier. At first he caused his victims to be shot singly or to be 
guillotined ; but finding these methods too slow, he devised more 
expeditious modes of execution, which were known as fusillades 
(battues) and noyades (drownings). The fusillades consisted in 
gathering the victims in large companies and then mowing them 
down with cannon and musket. In the noyades a hundred or 
more persons were crowded into an old hulk, which was then 
towed out into the Loire and scuttled. 

By these various methods Carrier succeeded in destroying 
upwards of five thousand persons in about four months. What 
renders these murders the more atrocious is the fact that a con- 
siderable number of the victims were women and little children. 

924. The Fall of Robespierre (July 28, 1794); Punishment of 
the Terrorists. — The Reign of Terror had lasted about nine 
months when a reaction came. The successes of the armies of 
the Republic and the establishment of the authority of the Con- 
vention throughout the departments caused the people to look 



EFFECTS OF THE REIGN OF TERROR 65 1 

upon the wholesale executions that were daily taking place as 
unnecessary and cruel. They began to turn with horror and pity 
from the scenes of the guillotine. Robespierre was the first to 
be swept away by the reaction. The Convention denounced him 
and his adherents as enemies of the Republic. He was arrested, 
rescued by the rabble of Paris, rearrested and straightway sent 
to the guillotine, and along with him several of his friends and 
the greater part of the members of the Commune of Paris. 

The reaction which had swept away Robespierre and his asso- 
ciates continued after their fall. There was a general demand 
for the punishment of the Terrorists. The clubs of the Jacobins 
were closed, and that infamous society which had rallied and 
directed the hideous rabbles of the great cities was broken up. 
The Christian worship was reestablished. 

925. Effects of the Reign of Terror. — The effect of the Terror 
upon France was just what the Terrorists had aimed to produce. 
It effectually cowed all opposition at home to the Revolution, 
thereby preserving the unity of France and enabling her to push 
the foreign foe from her soil. 

Outside of France the effects of the rule by terror were most 
unfavorable to the true cause of the Revolutionists. It destroyed 
the illusions of generous souls, like Coleridge, Wordsworth, and 
Southey in England, and caused among the earlier sympathizers 
with the Revolutionists a great revulsion of feeling. From being 
Liberals men became Conservatives and determined foes of all 
innovation and reform. The Revolution was discredited in the 
eyes of its best friends. It became identified in men's minds with 
atheism and terrorism, and to the present hour in the minds of 
many the French Revolution suggests nothing save foul blas- 
phemies and guillotine horrors. 

926. Bonaparte defends the Convention (Oct. 5, 1795). — Expe- 
rience had shown the defects of the revolutionary government, 
particularly in that it united both legislative and executive power 
in the same hands. The Convention now set about framing a 
new constitution, which vested the executive power in a body 
called the Directory, consisting of five persons. It also provided 



652 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

for two legislative bodies, known as the Council of Five Hundred 
and the Council of Ancients. 

Certain features of the new constitution displeased the Parisian 
mob. The sections of the turbulent capital again gathered their 
hordes, and on the 5th of October, 1795, a mob of forty thousand 
men advanced to the attack of the Tuileries, where the Conven- 
tion was sitting. As the mob came on they were met by a " whiff 
of grapeshot," which sent them flying back in wild disorder. The 
man who trained the guns was a young artillery officer, a native 
of the island of Corsica, — Napoleon Bonaparte. The Revolu- 
tion had at last brought forth a man of genius capable of con- 
trolling and directing its tremendous energies. 

V. The Directory (Oct. 27, 1795-Nov. 9, 1799) 

927. The Republic becomes Aggressive. — Under the Directory 
the Republic, which up to this time had been acting mainly on 
the defensive, very soon entered upon an aggressive policy. The 
Revolution having accomplished its work in France, having there 
put an end to despotism and class privilege, now set itself about 
fulfilling its early promise of giving liberty to all peoples (sec. 910). 

Had not the minds and hearts of the people in all the neigh- 
boring countries been prepared to welcome the new order of 
things, the Revolution could never have spread itself as widely as 
it did. But everywhere irrepressible longings for equality and 
freedom, born of long oppression, were stirring the souls of men. 
The French armies were everywhere welcomed by the people 
as deliverers. Thus was France enabled to surround herself with 
a girdle of commonwealths. She conquered Europe not by her 
armies but by her ideas. "An invasion of armies," says Victor 
Hugo, " can be resisted : an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted." 

The republics established were, it is true, short-lived; for the 
times were not yet ripe for the complete triumph of democratic 
ideas. But a great gain for freedom was made. The reestablished 
monarchies, as we shall see later, never dared to make themselves 
as despotic as those which the Revolution had overturned. 



THE PLANS OF THE DIRECTORY 653 

928. The Plans of the Directory. — Austria and England were 
the only formidable powers that still persisted in their hostility 
to the Republic. The Directors resolved to strike a decisive 
blow at the first of these implacable foes. To carry out their 
design, two large armies were mustered upon the Middle Rhine 
and intrusted to the command of the two young and energetic 
generals, Moreau and Jourdan, who were to make a direct in- 
vasion of Germany. A third army, numbering about forty-two 
thousand men, was assembled in the neighborhood of Nice, in 
Southeastern France, and placed in the hands of Bonaparte, 
to whom was assigned the work of driving the Austrians out 
of Italy. 

929. Bonaparte's Italian Campaign (1796-179 7). — -Straight- 
way upon receiving his command, Bonaparte, now in his twenty- 
seventh year, hastened to join his army at Nice. He at once 
aroused all its latent enthusiasm by one of those short, stirring 
addresses for which he afterwards became so famous. " Soldiers," 
said he, " you are badly fed and almost naked. ... I have come 
to lead you into the most fertile fields of the world ; thereyou will 
find large cities, rich provinces, honor, glory, and wealth. Soldiers 
of Italy, will you fail in courage? " 

If this address be placed alongside the decree of the Conven- 
tion offering the aid of France to all peoples desiring freedom 
(sec. 910), it will be realized with how alien a spirit Bonaparte 
here inspires the armies of republican France. He represents 
Italy to the imagination of the soldiers of the French Republic 
merely as a country of rich cities to be despoiled, as a land 
whence France may draw unlimited tribute. The address marks 
the beginning of that transformation which in a few years changed 
the liberating armies of France into the scourge of Europe. 

Before the mountain roads were yet free from snow Bonaparte 
set in motion his army, which he had assembled on the coast 
near Genoa, and suddenly forced the passage of the mountains 
at the juncture of the Apennines and the Maritime Alps. The 
Carthaginian had been surpassed. " Hannibal," exclaimed Bona- 
parte, "crossed the Alps : as for us, we have turned them." 



654 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

Now followed a most astonishing series of French victories 
over the Austrians and their allies. As a result of the campaign 
a considerable part of Northern Italy was formed into a common- 
wealth under the name of the Cisalpine Republic. Genoa was also 
transformed into the Ligurian Republic. 

930. Treaty of Campo Formio (Oct. 17, 1 797). — While Bona- 
parte had been gaining his surprising victories in Italy, Moreau 
and Jourdan had been meeting- with severe reverses in Germany. 
Bonaparte, having effected the work assigned to the army of Italy, 
now climbed the Eastern Alps and marched toward Vienna. The 
near approach of the French to his capital induced the Emperor 
Francis II to listen to proposals of peace. An armistice was 
agreed upon, and later the important Treaty of Campo Formio 
was arranged, by the terms of which Austria ceded her Belgian 
provinces to France, receiving as an offset the Venetian domin- 
ions, save the Ionian Islands, which were annexed to the French 
Republic. 

With the treaty arranged, Bonaparte soon set out for Paris, 
where was accorded him a triumph and ovation such as Europe 
had not seen since the days of the old Roman conquerors. 

931. Bonaparte's Campaign in Egypt (1 798-1 799). — The 
Directors had received Bonaparte with apparent enthusiasm ; but 
at this very moment they were disquieted by fears lest their gen- 
eral's ambition might lead him to play the part of a second Caesar. 
They resolved to engage him in an enterprise which would take 
him out of France. This undertaking was an attack upon Eng- 
land, which they were then meditating. Bonaparte opposed 
the plan of a descent upon the island as impracticable, but 
proposed the conquest of Egypt. This would enable France to 
control the trade of the East and cut England off from her East 
India possessions. The Directors assented to the plan, and 
with feelings of relief saw Bonaparte embark, from the port of 
Toulon to carry out the enterprise. 

Evading the vigilance of the British fleet that was patrolling the 
Mediterranean, Bonaparte landed in Egypt (July 1, 1798). Within 
sight of the Pyramids the French army was checked in its march 



BONAPARTE'S CAMPAIGN IN EGYPT 655 

by a determined stand of the renowned Mameluke cavalry. Bona- 
parte animated the spirits of his men for the inevitable fight by 
one of his happiest speeches. One of the sentences is memorable. 
" Soldiers," he exclaimed, pointing to the Pyramids, " forty cen- 
turies are looking down upon you." The battle that followed 
is known in history as the " battle of the Pyramids." Bona- 
parte gained a victory that opened the way for his advance to 
Cairo. He had barely entered that city before the startling intel- 
ligence was borne to him that his fleet had been destroyed at 
the mouth of the Nile by the English admiral Nelson (August 1, 
1798). 

In the spring of 1799, the Ottoman Porte having sent a force 
to retake Egypt, Bonaparte led his army into Syria to fight the 
Turks there. He finally invested Acre. The Turks were assisted 
in the defense of this place by the distinguished English com- 
modore, Sir Sidney Smith. All Bonaparte's efforts to carry the 
place by storm were in vain. " I missed my destiny at Acre," 
said Bonaparte afterwards. With the ports of Syria secured he 
might have imitated Alexander and led his soldiers to the foot of 
the Himalayas. Bitterly disappointed, Bonaparte abandoned the 
siege of Acre, and led his army back into Egypt. 

932. Establishment of the Tiberine, the Helvetic, and the Par- 
thenopean Republic (1 798-1 799). — We must turn now to note 
affairs in Europe. The year 1798 was a favorable one for the 
republican cause represented by the Revolution. During that 
year and the opening month of the following one, the French 
set up three new republics. First, they incited an insurrection 
at Rome, made a prisoner of the Pope, and proclaimed the 
Roman or Tiberine Republic. Then, intervening in a revolu- 
tion in Switzerland, they invaded the Swiss cantons and united 
them into a commonwealth under the name of the Helvetic 
Republic. A little later they drove the king of Naples out of 
Italy to Sicily, and transformed his peninsular domains into the 
Parthenopean Republic. Thus were three new republics added 
to the commonwealths which the Revolution had previously 
created. 



656 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

933. The Reaction; Bonaparte overthrows the Directory (18th 
and 19th Brumaire, 1799). — Much of this work was quickly 
undone. Encouraged by the victory of Nelson over the French 
fleet in the battle of the Nile, and alarmed at the aggressions of 
the government of the Directory, the leading powers of Europe, 
now including the Tsar of Russia, who was incensed against the 
French especially for their intrusion into the Orient, which the 
Russian rulers had ever regarded as their own particular sphere 
of influence, had formed a new coalition against France. 

The war began early in 1 799 and was waged at one and the 
same time in Italy, in Switzerland, and in Holland. In the south 
the campaign was extremely disastrous to # the French. They were 
driven out of Italy, and were barely able to keep the allies off the 
soil of France. The Cisalpine, Tiberine, and Parthenopean repub- 
lics were abolished. These reverses suffered by the French armies 
in Italy, though in other quarters they had been successful, 
caused the Directory to fall into great disfavor. They were 
charged with having through jealousy exiled Bonaparte, the only 
man who could save the Republic. Confusion and division pre- 
vailed everywhere. The threats of the mob of Paris began to 
create apprehensions of another Reign of Terror. 

News of the desperate state of affairs at home reached Bona- 
parte in Egypt, just after his return from Syria. He instantly 
formed a bold resolve. Confiding the command of the army in 
Egypt to Kleber, 12 he set sail for France, disclosing his designs in 
the significant words, " The reign of the lawyers is over." 

Bonaparte was welcomed in France with the wildest enthusi- 
asm. A great majority of the people felt instinctively that the 
emergency demanded a dictator. Some of the Directors joined 
with Napoleon in a plot to overthrow the government. Meeting 
with opposition in the Council of Five Hundred, Napoleon with 
a body of grenadiers drove the deputies from their chamber. 

The French Revolution had at last brought forth its Cromwell. 
Napoleon was master of France. The first French Republic was 
at an end, and what is distinctively called the French Revolution 

l 2 A little later, this army in Egypt surrendered to the English. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 657 

was over. Now commences the history of the Consulate and the 
First Empire, — the story of that surprising career the sun of which 
rose so brightly at Austerlitz and set forever at Waterloo. 

Selections from the Sources. — Arthur Young, Travels in France, 
is the most valuable contemporary account we have of the condition of 
France, particularly of the peasantry, on the eve of the Revolution. Burke, 
Reflections on the Revolution in France. Translations and Reprints, vol. i, 
No. 5, contains (1) " Decree of the National Assembly abolishing the Feudal 
System," (2) "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen," and 
(3) " The Civil Constitution of the Clergy " ; vol. iv, No. 5, " Typical Cahiers 
of 1789"; and vol. vi, No. 1, "French Philosophers of the Eighteenth 
Century." Robinson, Readings hi European History, vol. ii, chaps, xxxiv- 
xxxvi, and first part of chap, xxxvii. For additional material the special 
student should turn to Anderson, The Constitutions and Other Select Docu- 
ments Illustrative of the History of France, i"j8g-iqoi. 

Secondary Works. — For the antecedents and causes of the Revolution: 
Taine, H. A., The Ancient Regime, and Tocqueville, Alexis de, The 
Old Regime and the Revolution. Buckle, H. T., History of Civilization in 
England, vol. i, chaps, xii-xiv, gives an unsurpassed presentation of the 
philosophical and literary movement of the eighteenth century. Lowell, 
E. J., The Eve of the Revolution ; a series of scholarly and suggestive studies 
of the various phases of French life and thought during the century preced- 
ing the calling of the States-General. 

Short histories : Stephens, H. Morse, Revolutionary Ettrope, 1789-1813, 
first part. The most authoritative short history of the Revolution. Other 
excellent short accounts are Morris', Mallet's, Mathews', and Mignet's. 

Extended histories : Stephens, H. Morse, A History of the French 
Revolution, 2 vols.; Taine, H. A.,' The French Revolution, 3 vols.; The 
Cambridge Modern History, vol. viii ; and Carlyle, T., The French Revolu- 
tion. The last is another of Carlyle's masteipieces ; " a prose epic " and 
" pictures in the French Revolution " are good characterizations of it. 

Biographies: Morley, J., Rousseau, 2 vols., and Voltaire; Willert, 
P. F., Mirabeau; Lamartine, A., History of the Girondists, 3 vols.; 
Tarbell, I. M., Madame Roland; Southey, R., The Life of Nelson. 

Work on special phase of the Revolution : Mahan, A. T., The Influence 
of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, vol. i. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The salt tax (the gabelle). 2. Rousseau. 
3. Mirabeau. 4. The Marseillaise hymn. 5. Thorwaldsen's " Lion of 
Lucerne." 6. Life in Paris during the Reign of Terror. See Stephens. 
7. Madame Roland. 



CHAPTER LXVIII 



THE CONSULATE AND THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 

(1799-1815) 

I. The Consulate (1799-1804) 

934. The Veiled Military Dictatorship. — After the overthrow 
of the government of the Directory, a new constitution was pre- 
pared and, having been submitted to the approval of the- people, 

was accepted by a vote 



of over three millions to 
less than two thousand. 
This new instrument vested 
the executive power in 
three Consuls, nominated 
for a term of ten years, the 
first of whom really exer- 
cised all the authority of 
the board, the remaining 
two members being simply 
his counselors. Bonaparte, 
of course, became the First 
Consul. 

The other functions of 

the government were car- 
Fig. 1 50. -Napoleon Bonaparte. (After ried Qn by a Council of 

the medallion by Isabey) 0i , ™ .. T . 

1 State, a 1 nbunate, a Legis- 

lature, and a Senate. But the members of all these bodies were 
appointed either directly or indirectly by the Consuls, so that the 
entire government was actually in their hands, or rather in the 
hands of the First Consul. France was still called a republic, 
but it was such a republic as Rome was under Augustus. The 
republican names and forms merely veiled a government as 

658 




WARS OF THE FIRST CONSUL 659 

absolute and personal as that of Louis XIV, — in a word, a military 
dictatorship. 

935. Wars of the First Consul. — Bonaparte inherited from the 
Directory war with Austria and England. Offers of peace to both 
having been rejected, Bonaparte mustered his armies. His plan 
was to deal Austria, his only formidable Continental enemy, a 
double blow. A large army was collected on the Rhine for an 
invasion of Germany. This was intrusted to Moreau. Another, 
intended to operate against the Austrians in Italy, was gathered 
with great secrecy at the foot of the Alps. Bonaparte himself 
assumed command of this latter force. 

In the spring of the year 1800 Bonaparte made his memo- 
rable passage of the Alps, and astonished the Austrian generals 
by suddenly appearing in Piedmont at the head of an army of 
forty thousand men. Upon the renowned field of Marengo the 
Austrian army, which greatly outnumbered that of the French, 
was completely overwhelmed, and North Italy lay for a second 
time at the feet of Bonaparte. The Cisalpine Republic was now 
reestablished. 

A few months after the battle of Marengo, Moreau gained a 
decisive victory over the Austrians at Hohenlinden, which opened 
the way to Vienna. The Emperor Francis II was now constrained 
to sign a treaty of peace at LuneVille (Feb. 9, 1801). The most 
important part of the treaty was that which provided for the 
reconstruction of the Germanic body. But as this reorganization 
of Central Europe was not completed until after the battle of 
Austerlitz, we shall defer explanation of it until we reach that 
important event (sec. 943) . The year following the peace between 
France and Austria, England signed the Peace of Amiens. 

936. Bonaparte as an Enlightened Despot Peace with Austria 

and England left Bonaparte free to devote his amazing energies 
to the reform and improvement of the internal affairs of France. 
It was his work here which constitutes his true title to fame. He 
was, in the words of his biographer, Professor Sloane, " one of the 
greatest social reformers of the world." We shall best understand 
Bonaparte in his role as a reformer, and best determine his place 



660 THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 

in history, if we regard him as the successor of the benevolent 
despots of the eighteenth century. His mission was to carry on 
and perfect their work and to consummate the reforms and to 
make secure the social results of the Revolution. 

To close the wounds inflicted upon France by the Revolution 
was one of the first aims of Bonaparte. The deepest wound had 
been given by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (sec. 900). 
This had divided the nation into two bitterly opposed parties. 
Moreover, since 1794 the government had ceased to pay the 
salaries of the priests, with the result that many communes were 
wholly without regular religious services. To remedy this state 
of things Bonaparte entered into an agreement with the holy see 
known as the Concordat (July 15, 1801). The First Consul was 
to appoint archbishops and bishops impartially from both parties, 
and the state was again to assume as a public charge the salaries 
of the clergy. 1 The Pope was to be recognized as the head of the 
Church in France, and was to confirm in their ecclesiastical offices 
the persons appointed by the government. The Concordat closed 
the great breach which the Revolution had opened in the French 
Church, and attached the Catholics to the government of the 
First Consul. 

Not less successful was Bonaparte in his efforts to restore those 
material interests of the country which had suffered during the 
Revolution. He repaired and constructed roads and bridges, dug 
canals, and improved the seaports of the country. The great 
military roads which he caused to be constructed over the Alps 
are marvels of engineering skill, and served as a chief means of 
communication between Italy and the north of Europe until the 
mountains were pierced with tunnels. 

The public buildings and monuments of France had fallen 
into decay. Bonaparte restored the old and built new ones. 
He embellished Paris and the other chief cities of France with 



1 This arrangement held good down to 1905, the salaries of all the French clergy, 
including Protestant ministers and Jewish rabbis, being paid out of the public treas- 
ury. In the year named, however, the agreement was annulled by the French govern- 
ment and State and Church in France were separated. 





c 


s 


? 


5 


g 










(§TJtt,K)G|55fc,t5 






















!M 



BONAPARTE BECOMES CONSUL FOR LIFE 66l 

public edifices and memorial monuments of every description. 
Many of these works are the pride of France to-day. 

But the most noteworthy of the works of Napoleon Bonaparte, 
either as First Consul or as Emperor, was the compilation of 
what is known as the Civil Code, or Code Napoleon, which has 
caused his name to be joined with that of Justinian as one of the 
great lawgivers of history. Almost immediately after coming to 
power he appointed a commission of five eminent jurists to take 
up this work, which had been begun by the Constituent Assembly 
and the Convention. These experts were busied with the labor 
for about four years (1800- 1804). 

The Code was made up of the ancient customs of France, 
of Roman law maxims, and particularly of the principles and 
legislation of the Revolution. This great mass of material was 
condensed, harmonized, and revised in some such way as the 
jurists of the Emperor Justinian handled the accumulated mass 
of law material — old and new, pagan and Christian — of their 
time, in the creation of the Corpus Juris Civilis (sec. 459). 

The influence of the Civil Code upon the development of Lib- 
eralism in Western Europe was most salutary. It secured the work 
of the Revolution. It swept away the old unequal, oppressive cus- 
toms and laws that were an inheritance from the feudal ages. 
It recognized the equality of noble and peasant in the eye of the 
law. Either its principles or its direct provisions were soon intro- 
duced into half of the countries of Europe. 

937. Bonaparte becomes Consul for Life (August, 1802). — 
Through the Senate and the Council of State it was now pro- 
posed to the French people that Bonaparte should be made Con- 
sul for life, in order that his magnificent projects of restoration 
and reform might be pursued without interruption. With almost 
a single voice the people approved the proposal. Thus did the 
First Consul move a step nearer the imperial throne. From this 
time on Bonaparte, imitating a royal custom, used only his first 
name, Napoleon, and it is by this name, destined to fill such a 
great place in history, that we shall hereafter know him. 



662 THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 

II. The Napoleonic Empire ; the War of 
Liberation (1804-1815) 

938. Napoleon proclaimed Emperor (1804). — A conspiracy 
against the life of the First Consul and the increased activity of 
his enemies resulted in a movement to increase his power and to 
insure his safety and the stability of his government by placing 
him upon a throne. A decree of the Senate conferring upon 
him the title of Emperor of the French having been submitted to 
the people for approval, was ratified by an almost unanimous 
vote. The coronation took place in the cathedral of Notre Dame 
in Paris, Dec. 2, 1804, Pope Pius VII having been induced to 
come from Rome to take part in the ceremonies. 

939. The Republics created by the Revolution are changed into 
Kingdoms. — Within two years from the time that the French 
government assumed an imperial form, three of the surrounding 
republics raised up by the revolutionary ideas and armies of France 
had been transformed into states with monarchical governments 
dependent upon the French Empire or had been incorporated 
with France. In a word, all these states now became practically 
the fiefs of Napoleon's empire, the provinces and dependencies 
of a new Rome. 

Thus the Cisalpine or Italian Republic was changed into a 
kingdom, and Napoleon, crowning himself at Milan with the 
" Iron Crown " of the Lombards, 2 assumed the government of the 
state, with the title of King of Italy (May, 1805). A little later in 
the same year the Emperor incorporated the Ligurian Republic 
with the French Empire (June, 1805). Then he remodeled the 
Batavian Republic into the kingdom of Holland and conferred 
the crown upon his favorite brother Louis (May, 1806). 

Thus was the political work of the Revolution undone. Political 
liberty was taken away. " I set it aside," said Napoleon, "when 
it obstructed my road." Civil equality was left. 

2 Napoleon here imitated Charlemagne. He said, " I am Charlemagne, for like 
Charlemagne I unite the crowns of France and Lombardy." Compare sec. 531. 



THE EMPIRE AND THE OLD MONARCHIES 663 

940. The Empire and the Old Monarchies. — It will not be 
supposed that the states of Europe were looking quietly on 
while all this was being done. The colossal power which the 
soldier of fortune was building up was a menace to all Europe. 
The Empire was more dreaded than the Republic, because it was 
a military despotism, and as such was an instrument of irresistible 
power in the hands of a man of such genius and resources as 
Napoleon. Coalition after coalition, of which England was " the 
paymaster," was formed by the sovereigns of Europe against the 
"usurper," with the object at first of pushing France back within 
her original boundaries, and then later of deposing Napoleon as 
the disturber of the peace of Europe and the oppressor of the 
nations. 

From the coronation of Napoleon in 1804 until his final down- 
fall in 1815 the tremendous struggle went on almost without 
intermission. It was the war of the giants. Europe was shaken 
from end to end with such armies as the world had not seen 
since the days of Xerxes. Napoleon performed the miracles of 
genius. His brilliant achievements still dazzle, while they amaze, 
the world. 

To relate in detail the campaigns of Napoleon from Austerlitz 
to Waterloo would require the space of volumes. We shall simply 
indicate in a few brief paragraphs the successive steps by which 
he mounted to the highest pitch of power and fame, and then 
trace hurriedly the decline and fall of his astonishing fortunes. 

941. Napoleon's Preparations for invading England; the Sale 
of Louisiana to the United States ; the Camp at Boulogne (1803- 
1805). — Even before Napoleon's coronation, war had been 
renewed between France and England. One of Napoleon's first 
acts of preparation for this struggle was the sale (in 1803) to the 
United States, for fifteen million dollars, of the territory of 
Louisiana, which he had recently acquired from Spain. He was 
impelled to do this because his inferiority at sea made it impos- 
sible for him to defend such remote possessions. 

The sale and transfer of this immense region of boundless 
resources was one of the most important transactions in history. 



664 THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 

Napoleon seems to have realized its significance for the develop- 
ment of the great American republic. " I have given England a 
rival," he said, "which sooner or later will humble her pride." 

As early as 1803 Napoleon had begun to mass a great army at 
Boulogne, on the English Channel, and to build an immense 
number of flat-bottomed boats preparatory to an invasion of 
England. " Carthage must be destroyed," was the menacing and 
persistent cry of the French press. " Masters of the Channel for 
six hours," said Napoleon, " and we are masters of the world." 

Napoleon's menacing preparations produced throughout Eng- 
land an alarm unequaled by anything the English people had expe- 
rienced since the days of the Spanish Armada. The younger Pitt, 
at this time head of the English government, was untiring in fos- 
tering a new coalition of the powers against France. Early in 
the year 1805 England and Russia formed an alliance which was 
intended to constitute the nucleus of a general European league. 
Austria and other states soon joined the coalition. 

942. Campaign against Austria : Austerlitz (Dec. 2, 1805). — 
Intelligence reaching Napoleon that both the Austrian and the 
Russian armies were on the move, he suddenly broke up the camp 
at Boulogne, flung his Grand Army, as it was called, across the 
Rhine, outmaneuvered and captured a great Austrian army at 
Ulm, and then marched in triumph through Vienna to the field of 
Austerlitz beyond, where he gained one of his most memorable 
victories over the combined armies of Austria and Russia, number- 
ing more than eighty thousand men. Austria was now shorn of 
large tracts of her dominions, 3 including Venetia, which Napoleon 
added to the kingdom of Italy. 

943. The Reorganization of Germany; End of the Holy Roman 
Empire (1806). — That reconstruction of the Germanic body 
which Napoleon had begun after the battles of Marengo and 
Hohenlinden (sec. 935) was now in its large outlines completed. 
Napoleon ultimately reduced the three hundred and more states 
comprising the Germanic system to about forty. It was the 

3 The Treaty of Pressburg (Dec. 26, 1805) arranged affairs between Austria and 
France. 



THE REORGANIZATION OF GERMANY 665 

ecclesiastical states, the free imperial cities, and the petty states 
of the minor princes which suffered extinction, their lands being 
bestowed upon the princes of the states selected for survival. 
Among the rulers especially favored at this time were the Elector 
of Bavaria and the Duke of Wiirtemberg, both of whom were 
made kings and given enough territory to enable them to maintain 
becomingly this new dignity. 

These favored states, together with others, — sixteen in all, — 
now declared themselves independent of the old Holy Roman 
Empire, and were formed into a league called the Confedera- 
tion of the Rhine, with Napoleon as Protector (July 12, 1806). 
Emperor Francis II, recognizing that his office was virtually abol- 
ished, now laid down the imperial crown (August 6, 1806), and 
henceforth used as his highest title Francis /, Emperor of Austria. 

Thus did the Holy Roman Empire come to an end, after 
having maintained an existence, since its revival under Charle- 
magne, of almost exactly one thousand years. Reckoning from 
its establishment by Caesar Augustus, it had lasted over eighteen 
hundred years, thus being one of the longest-lived of human 
institutions, — if mere existence may be reckoned as life. 

944. Good Results of Napoleon's Reorganization of Germany. — 
Napoleon's reorganization of the Germanic body brought ulti- 
mately great blessings to the German folk. It marked the begin- 
ning of the regeneration of the German fatherland. Out of the 
new German system which Napoleon created was to rise the 
German Empire of to-day. Hence we may regard Napoleon's 
reconstruction of Central Europe as one of the most important, 
in its far-reaching consequences, of all his acts. 

An immediate benefit conferred upon the states of the Con- 
federation of the Rhine was the introduction into them of all 
the reforms which had regenerated France and made her strong. 
Serfdom was abolished where it still lingered ; equality of the 
noble and the non-noble classes before the law was established ; 
and the new French Civil Code was partly put in force. 

945. Trafalgar (Oct. 21, 1805). — Napoleon's brilliant victo- 
ries in Germany were clouded by an irretrievable disaster to his 



666 THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 

fleet, which occurred on the day following the surrender of the 
Austrians at Ulm. Lord Nelson having met, near Cape Trafalgar 
on the coast of Spain, the combined French and Spanish fleets, 
— Spain was at this time Napoleon's ally, — almost completely 
destroyed the combined armaments. The gallant English admiral 
fell at the moment of victory. 

This decisive battle gave England the control of the sea and 
relieved her from all danger of a French invasion. Even the 
"wet ditch," as Napoleon was wont contemptuously to call the 
English Channel, was henceforth an impassable gulf to his ambi- 
tion. He might rule the Continent, but the sovereignty of the 
ocean and its islands was denied him. 

946. Campaign against Prussia : Jena and Auerstadt (1806). 
— * Prussia was the next state after Austria to feel the weight of 
Napoleon's hand. King Frederick William III, goaded by insuffer- 
able insult, imprudently threw down the gauntlet to the victor of 
Austerlitz. 

Moving with his usual swiftness, Napoleon overwhelmed the 
Prussian armies in the battles of Jena and Auerstadt, which were 
both fought on the same day (Oct. 14, 1806). The greater part 
of Prussia was now quickly overrun by the French. The capital, 
Berlin, was entered by them in triumph. The sword of the great 
Frederick, the famous car of victory over the Brandenburg Gate, 
together with many treasures stolen from the museums and art 
galleries of the city, were carried as trophies to Paris. 

947. Campaigns against the Russians : Eylau and Friedland 
(1807). — The Russian army, which the Tsar Alexander had 
sent to the aid of Frederick William, was still in the field against 
Napoleon in the Prussian territories east of the Vistula. 

Early in the year 1807 Napoleon attacked, on a stormy winter 
day, the Russian forces at Eylau. The battle was sanguinary and 
indecisive, each army, it is estimated, leaving over thirty thousand 
dead and wounded on the snow. During the summer campaign 
of the same year Napoleon again engaged the Russians in the 
terrible battle of Friedland and completely overwhelmed them. 
The Tsar was constrained to sue for peace. 



THE CONTINENTAL BLOCKADE 667 

By the terms of the Treaty of Tilsit, Prussia was stripped of 
fully one half of her dominions, a part of which, in connection 
with other lands, was made into a new state, called the Kingdom 
of Westphalia, with Napoleon's brother Jerome as its king, and 
added to the Confederation of the Rhine ; while the greater part 
of Prussian Poland, reorganized and named the Grand Duchy of 
Warsaw, was given to the vassal king of Saxony. 4 What was left 
of Prussia became virtually a dependency of the French Empire. 

948. The Continental Blockade; the Berlin and Milan Decrees 
(1806-1807). — After the Peace of Tilsit, England was Napo- 
leon's sole remaining enemy. The means which he employed to 
compass the ruin of this formidable and obstinate foe, the pay- 
master of the coalitions which he was having constantly to face, 
affords the key to the history of the great years from 1807 to the 
final downfall of Napoleon at Waterloo in 18 15. These means 
were what is known as the Continental Blockade or System. We 
have seen how the destruction of Napoleon's fleet at Trafalgar 
dashed all his hopes of ever making a descent upon the British 
shores (sec. 945). Unable to reach his enemy directly with his 
arms, he resolved to strike her through her commerce. By two 
celebrated edicts, called from the cities whence they were issued 
the Berlin and Milan decrees, he closed all the ports of the Con- 
tinent against English ships, and forbade any of the European 
nations from holding any intercourse with Great Britain. The 
policy thus adopted by Napoleon to bring England to terms by 
ruining her trade was a suicidal one, and resulted finally in the 
ruin of his own empire. 

949. Beginning of the Peninsular Wars (1808). — One of the 
first consequences of Napoleon's Continental Blockade was to 
bring him into conflict with Portugal. The prince regent of that 
country refusing to comply with all his demands respecting Eng- 
lish trade and property, Napoleon sent one of his marshals to 
take possession of the kingdom. The entire royal family, accom- 
panied by many of the nobility, fled to Brazil. Portugal now 
became virtually a province of Napoleon's empire. 

4 Napoleon had made the Elector of Saxony a king just after the battle of Jena. 



668 THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 

950. Napoleon places his Brother Joseph upon the Spanish Throne 

(June 6, 1808) ; the Spanish Uprising. — Spain was next appropri- 
ated. Arrogantly interfering in the affairs of that country, — the gov- 
ernment it must be said was desperately incompetent and corrupt, 
— Napoleon induced the weak-minded Bourbon king, Charles IV, 
to resign to him as " his dearly beloved friend and ally " his crown, 
which he at once bestowed upon his brother Joseph. The throne 
of Naples, which Joseph had been occupying, 5 was transferred to 
Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law. Thus did this audacious man 
make and unmake kings, and give away thrones and kingdoms. 

But the high-spirited Spaniards were not the people to submit 
tamely to such an indignity. The entire nation from the Pyrenees 
to the Straits of Gibraltar flew to arms. Portugal also arose, and 
England sent to her aid a force under Sir Arthur Wellesley, after- 
wards Duke of Wellington and the hero of Waterloo. The French 
armies were soon driven out of Portugal, and pushed beyond the 
Ebro in Spain. Joseph fled in dismay from his throne, and Napo- 
leon found it necessary to take the field himself, in order to restore 
the prestige of the French arms. He entered the peninsula at the 
head of a great army, and reseated his brother upon the Spanish 
throne. Threatening tidings from another quarter of Europe now 
caused Napoleon to hasten back to Paris. 

951. Napoleon's Third Campaign against Austria (1809). — 
Taking advantage of Napoleon's troubles in the Iberian penin- 
sula, Emperor Francis I of Austria had put his army on a war 
footing, and made ready to throw down the gage of battle. The 
war opened in the spring of 1809. At the end of a short cam- 
paign, the most noted engagements of which were the hard-fought 
battles of Aspern (Essling) and Wagram, Austria was again at 
Napoleon's feet. She was now still further dismembered. Among 
other lands taken from her was a long strip of shore land on the 
Adriatic, which, under the name of the Illyrian Provinces, Napo- 
leon added to the French Empire. He now had actual or virtual 
control of the whole of the European coast line from the frontier 
of Turkey on the Adriatic to the frontier of Russia on the Baltic. 

5 Napoleon had dethroned the Bourbons in Naples in 1806. 



NAPOLEON AND THE PAPAL STATES 669 

952. Union of the Papal States with Napoleon's Empire (May, 
1809). — Napoleon's Continental System now brought him into 
trouble with the Papacy. Pope Pius VII refused to enforce 
the blockade against England and further presumed to disregard 
other commands of Napoleon. Thereupon Napoleon declared 
that the Pope " was no longer a secular prince," and took pos- 
session of his domains. Pope Pius straightway excommunicated 
the Emperor, who thereupon arrested him, and for three years 
held him a state prisoner. 

953. Napoleon's Second Marriage (1810). — Soon after his tri- 
umph over the Emperor Francis, Napoleon divorced his wife 
Josephine in order to form a new alliance with the Archduchess 
Marie Louise of Austria. Josephine bowed meekly to the will of 
her lord and went into sorrowful exile from his palace. Napoleon's 
object in this matter was to cover the reproach of his plebeian 
birth by an alliance with one of the ancient royal families of 
Europe, and to secure the perpetuity of his government by leav- 
ing an heir to be the inheritor of his throne and fortunes. 

The ambition of Napoleon to found a dynasty seemed realized 
when, the year following his marriage with the archduchess, a 
son was born to them, who was given the title of King of Rome. 
His enemies could now no longer, as he reproached them with 
doing, make appointments at his grave. He had now some- 
thing more than "a life interest" in France. The succession 
was assured. 

954. Holland and North German Coast Lands annexed to Napo- 
leon's Empire (1810). — -During this year of his second marriage 
Napoleon made two fresh territorial additions to his empire. 

Louis Bonaparte, — king of Holland, it will be recalled, — dis- 
approving of his brother's Continental System, which was ruin- 
ing the trade of the Dutch, abdicated the crown. Thereupon 
Napoleon incorporated Holland with the French Empire (July 9, 
1810). 

A few months later Napoleon also annexed to his empire all 
the German coast land from Holland to Liibeck in order to be 
able to close the important ports here against English trade. 



670 THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 

955. Napoleon's Empire at its Greatest Extent (181 1). — In 
these additions the Napoleonic empire received its last enlarge- 
ment. Napoleon was now, in outward seeming, at the height of 
his marvelous fortunes. Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland, and 
Wagram were the successive steps by which he had mounted to 
the most dizzy heights of military power and glory. 

The empire which this soldier of fortune had built up stretched 
from Lubeck to beyond Rome, embracing France proper, the 
Netherlands, part of Western and Northwestern Germany, all 
Western Italy as far south as the kingdom of Naples, together with 
the Illyrian Provinces and the Ionian Islands. 

On all sides were allied, vassal, or dependent states. Several of 
the ancient thrones of Europe were occupied by Napoleon's rela- 
tives or his favorite marshals. He himself was king of the kingdom 
of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, and Medi- 
ator of Switzerland. Austria and Prussia were completely subject 
to his will. Russia and Denmark were his allies. 

Such were the relations of the once great powers and independ- 
ent states of Europe to " the Corsican adventurer." Not since 
the time of the Caesars had one man's will swayed so much of 
the civilized world. 

956. Elements of Weakness in the Empire. — But, splendid and 
imposing as at this moment appeared the external affairs of 
Napoleon, the sun of his fortunes, which had risen so brightly at 
Austerlitz, had already passed its meridian. There were many 
things just now contributing to the weakness of Napoleon's empire 
and foreboding its speedy dissolution. Founded and upheld by 
the genius of this single man, it depended solely upon his life and 
fortunes. 

Again, Napoleon's Continental System, through the suffering 
and loss it inflicted particularly upon the maritime countries of 
Europe, had caused murmurs of discontent all around the cir- 
cumference of the Continent. 

Still again, the conscriptions of the Emperor had drained 
France of men, and her armies were now recruited by mere 
boys, who were utterly unfit to bear the burden and fatigue of 




aft A 



WEAKNESS OF THE EMPIRE 671 

Napoleon's rapid campaigns. The heavy taxes, also, which were 
necessary to meet the expenses of Napoleon's wars, and to 
carry on the splendid public works upon which he was con- 
stantly engaged, produced great suffering and discontent through- 
out the empire. 

Furthermore, Napoleon's harsh and unjust treatment of Pope 
Pius VII had alienated the Catholic clergy and created a resentful 
feeling among pious Catholics everywhere. 

At the same time the crowd of deposed princes and dispossessed 
aristocrats in those states which Napoleon had reconstructed, and 
in which he had set up the new code of equal rights, were natu- 
rally resentful, and were ever watching an opportunity to regain 
their lost power and privileges. 

Even the large class who at first welcomed Napoleon as the 
representative of the French ideas of equality and liberty, and 
applauded while he overturned ancient thrones and stripped of 
their privileges ancient aristocracies, — even many of these early 
adherents had been turned into bitter enemies by his adoption of 
imperial manners and the formation of a court, and especially by 
his setting aside his first wife, Josephine, and forming a marriage 
alliance with one of the old hated royal houses of Europe. 

957. The New Force destined to destroy Napoleon's Empire: the 
Nations. — But the active force which was to overwhelm Napoleon's 
empire and to free Europe from his tyranny was the sentiment 
of national patriotism which was being aroused in the dismem- 
bered and vassal states, and in those whose independence was 
imperiled. The Empire threatened to become the tomb of the 
Nations. In the face of this danger national patriotism was being 
everywhere awakened. We have witnessed the popular uprising 
in Spain ; we shall now witness a similar movement in Germany 
and in Russia. 

958. The Regeneration of Prussia ; Reforms of Baron vom Stein. — 
It was in Prussia that this patriotic movement found most passion- 
ate expression. After the crushing defeat at Jena, Prussia had 
been subjected by Napoleon to every indignity and forced to 
drain to the dregs the cup of humiliation. This had for a result 



672 THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 

the calling into life in the nobler souls among the Germans of 
the long dormant sentiment of national patriotism. The growth 
of the new feeling was stimulated and directed by various agencies, 
particularly by patriot poets and teachers. A wholly new spirit 
was breathed into German education. Thousands of German 
youths were stirred by a sentiment they had never felt before, — 
ardent love for the German name and the German land. 

At the same time the masses of the people were being reached 
and awakened by the social and economic reforms planned by the 
eminent statesman Baron vom Stein, minister of King Frederick 
William. Two thirds of the population of Prussia were at this 
period serfs. Now Stein's idea was that the strength of a state 
depends upon the patriotism of the people ; but his insight 
revealed to him the truth that "patriots cannot be made out of 
serfs." Hence his policy of enfranchisement. 

By a celebrated Edict of Emancipation serfdom was abolished. 
This decree deserves a place along with the Emancipation Proc- 
lamation of Abraham Lincoln and the edict of the Emperor 
Alexander II which liberated the Russian serfs. The Prussian 
king, in the words of Stein, was no longer " the king of slaves, 
but of free men." Prussia's future was now secure. Henceforth 
she was not merely a state but a nation. 

The army also was reorganized on the model of that of France. 
The old army, which had gone to pieces so disgracefully on the 
field of Jena, was made up of conscripted peasants, officered by 
incompetent and insolent nobles. Flogging was the punishment 
for even the most trivial offenses. The new army was an army of 
self-respecting citizens, a truly national army. 

The effect of these reforms upon the spirit of the people was 
magical. They effected the political and moral regeneration of 
Prussia. They did for Prussia what like reforms had done for 
France. Prussia now became strong like France, because Prussia 
was no longer simply the king and the aristocracy, but the Prussian 
people. 

Prussia regenerated became the leader of Germany in the 
memorable War of Liberation, which we are now approaching. 



NAPOLEON'S INVASION OF RUSSIA 



673 



This uprising of the Prussian nation against Napoleon forms one of 
the most dramatic passages in the history of the German people. 
959. Napoleon's Invasion of Russia (1812-1813). — The signal 
for the general uprising of Germany and the rest of Europe was 
the terrible misfortune which befell Napoleon in his invasion of 
Russia. Various circumstances had concurred to weaken the 
friendship and break the alliance between the Russian Emperor 
and Napoleon ; but the main cause of mutual distrust and aliena- 
tion was the Continental Blockade. This had inflicted great loss 
upon Russian trade, and the Tsar had finally refused to carry out 
Napoleon's decrees, and entered a coalition against France. 




Fig. 151. — The Kremlin of Moscow. (From a photograph) 



Napoleon resolved to force Russia, as he had the rest of Con- 
tinental Europe, to bow to his will. Gathering contingents from 
all his vassal states, he crossed the Russian frontier at the head 
of what was proudly called the Grand Army, numbering upwards 
of four hundred thousand men. After making a single stand at 
Smolensk, the Russian army avoided battle, and as it retreated 
into the interior devastated the country in front of the advancing 
enemy. Finally, at Borodino, seventy miles from Moscow, the 
Russians halted and offered battle to cover the city, but in a 
terribly bloody struggle their resistance was broken and the 
invaders entered the ancient capital in triumph. 

To his astonishment Napoleon found the city practically de- 
serted by its inhabitants; and two days after he had estab- 
lished himself in the empty palace of the Tsar (in the Kremlin), 
fires, started in some unknown way, broke out simultaneously in 



674 THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 

different quarters of the city. The conflagration raged for five 
days, until the greater part of the city was reduced to ashes. 

Napoleon's situation was now critical. He had confidently 
expected, from his knowledge of the Emperor Alexander, that 
as soon as the French army was in Moscow he would sue for 
peace. But to Napoleon's messages Alexander returned for reply 
that he would not enter into negotiations with him so long as a 
single French soldier stood upon Russian soil. 

In the hope that the Tsar would abandon his heroic resolve, 
Napoleon lingered about the ruined city until the middle of 
October, and then finally gave orders for the return march. This 
delay was a fatal mistake, and resulted in one of the greatest 
tragedies in history. Before the retreating French columns had 
covered half the distance to the frontier, the terrible Russian 
winter was upon them. The sufferings of the ill-clad soldiers were 
intense. Thousands were frozen to death. The spot of each 
bivouac was marked by the circle of dead around the watch fires. 
Sometimes in a single night as many as two or three hundred 
perished. Thousands more were slain by the peasants and the 
wild Cossacks, who hovered about the retreating columns and 
harassed them day and night. The passage of the river Beresina 
was attended with appalling losses. Soon after the passage of this 
stream Napoleon, conscious that the fate of his empire depended 
upon his presence in Paris, left the remnant of the army in charge 
of his marshals and hurried by post to his capital. 

The loss by death of the French and their allies in this disas- 
trous campaign is reckoned at upwards of two hundred and fifty 
thousand men, while that of the Russians is estimated to have 
been almost as large. 

960. The War of Liberation ; the Battle of Leipzig, the " Battle 
of the Nations" (Oct. 16-19, 1813). — Napoleon's fortunes were 
buried with his Grand Army in the snows of Russia. His woeful 
losses here, taken in connection with his great losses in Spain, 
encouraged the European powers to think that now they could 
crush him. A sixth coalition was formed, embracing Russia, 
Prussia, England, Sweden, and later Austria. 



"THE HUNDRED DAYS" 675 

Napoleon made gigantic efforts to prepare for the final 
struggle. By the spring of 18 13 he was at the head of a new 
army, numbering eventually over three hundred thousand men, 
— boys we should say, so extremely young were a large number 
of the fresh recruits. Falling upon the allied armies of the Russians 
and Prussians, first at Lutzen and then at Bautzen, Napoleon 
gained a decisive victory upon both fields. Austria now appeared 
in the lists, and at Leipzig, in Saxony, Napoleon was attacked by 
the leagued armies of Europe. So many were the powers repre- 
sented upon this renowned field that it is known in history as the 
" Battle of the Nations." The combat lasted three days. Napo- 
leon was defeated and forced to retreat into France. 

The armies of the allies now poured over all the French fron- 
tiers. Napoleon's efforts to roll back the tide of invasion were all 
in vain. Paris surrendered to the allies (March 31, 18 14). As 
the struggle became plainly hopeless, the Emperor's most trusted 
officers deserted and betrayed him. The French Senate issued a 
decree deposing him and restoring the throne to the Bourbons. 
Napoleon was forced to abdicate and was banished to the little 
island of Elba in the Mediterranean, being permitted to retain 
his title of Emperor and to keep about him a few of his old 
guards. But Elba was a very diminutive empire for one to whom 
the half of Europe had seemed too small, and we shall not be 
surprised to learn that Napoleon was not content with it. 

961. " The Hundred Days " (March 20-June 29, 1815). — Upon 
invitation of the French Senate the brother of Louis XVI now 
assumed the crown with the title of Louis XVIII. With this new 
Bourbon king the allies arranged a treaty, 6 the shifty Talleyrand, 
who had earlier served Napoleon, acting as Louis' representative. 
This treaty gave France the frontiers she had in 1792. 

In accordance with a promise he had made, Louis gave France 
a constitution. Notwithstanding, he acted very much as though 
his power were unlimited. He styled himself " King of France 
and Navarre by the grace of God." He always alluded to the year 
in which he began to rule as the nineteenth year of his reign, thus 

s First Treaty of Paris, May 30, 1814. 



6j6 THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 

affecting to ignore wholly the government of the Republic and 
the Empire. This excited alarm, because it seemed to question 
the validity of all that had been done since the execution of 
Louis XVI. Some, fearing lest the work of the Revolution would 
be undone, began to desire the return of Napoleon, and the wish 
was perhaps what gave rise to the report which was spread abroad 
that he would come back with the spring violets. 

In the month of March, 1815, as the commissioners of the 
various powers were sitting at Vienna rearranging the landmarks 
and boundaries obliterated by the French inundation, news was 
brought to them that Napoleon had escaped from Elba and was 
in France. At first the members of the Congress were incredu- 
lous, regarding the thing as a jest, and were with difficulty con- 
vinced of the truth of the report. 

Taking advantage of the general dissatisfaction with the rule 
of the restored Bourbons, Napoleon had resolved upon a bold 
push for the recovery of his crown. Landing with about eight 
hundred guardsmen at one of the southern ports of France, he 
aroused all the country with one of his stirring addresses, and 
then immediately pushed on towards Paris. His journey to the 
capital was one continuous ovation. One regiment after another, 
forgetting their recent oath of loyalty to the Bourbons, hastened 
to join his train. His old generals and soldiers embraced him 
with transports of joy. Marshal Ney, sent to arrest the Emperor, 
whom he had promised to bring to Paris in a cage, at the first 
sight of his old commander threw himself into his arms and 
pledged him his sword and his life. Louis XVIII, deserted by 
his army, was left helpless, and, as Napoleon approached the 
gates of Paris, fled from his throne. 

Napoleon desired peace with the sovereigns of Europe ; but 
they did not think the peace of the continent could be main- 
tained so long as he sat upon the French throne. For the seventh 
and last time the allies leagued their armies against " the dis- 
turber of the peace of Europe." 

Hoping to overwhelm the armies of the allies by striking them 
one after another before they had time to unite, Napoleon moved 



"THE HUNDRED DAYS" 677 

swiftly into Belgium with an army of one hundred and thirty 
thousand in order to crush there the English under the Duke 
of Wellington and the Prussians under Bliicher. He first fell in 
with and defeated the Prussian army, and then faced the English 
at Waterloo (June 18, 1815). 

The story of Waterloo need not be told, — how all day the 
French broke their columns in vain on the English squares ; 
how, at the critical moment towards the close of the day when 
Wellington was wishing for Bliicher or for night, Bliicher with 
a fresh force of thirty thousand Prussians turned the tide of 
battle ; and how the famous Old Guard, which knew how to die 
but not how to surrender, 7 made its last charge and left its 
hitherto invincible squares upon the lost field. 

A second time Napoleon was forced to abdicate, 8 and a second 
time Louis XVIII ascended his unstable throne. 9 Napoleon 
made his way to the coast, purposing to take ship for the United 
States ; but the way was barred by British watchfulness, and he 
was constrained to surrender to the commander of the English 
warship Bellerophon. " I come, like Thernistocles," he said, " to 
throw myself upon the hospitality of the English people." 

But no one believed that Napoleon could safely be left at large, 
or that his presence anywhere in Europe, even though he were in 
close confinement, would be consistent with the future security 
and repose of the continent. Some even urged that he be given 
up to Louis XVIII to be shot as a rebel and an outlaw. The final 
decision was that he should be banished to the island of St. Helena, 
in the South Atlantic. Thither he was carried by the English, and 
closely guarded by them until his death in 182 1. 

The story of these last years of Napoleon Bonaparte, as 
gathered from the companions of his exile, is one of the most 

7 General Cambronne, the commander of the Guard, when summoned to surren- 
der, is said to have returned this reply : " The Guard dies, but never surrenders." 
There is doubt concerning the origin of the famous phrase. 

8 His abdication was in favor of his little son, whom he proclaimed " Napoleon \\^ 
Emperor of the French." 

9 The allies now signed with Louis what is known as the Second Treaty of Paris 
(Nov. 20, 1815). France had now to accept the frontiers which were hers in 1789. 



678 THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 

pathetic in all history. At the time of his death he was in his 
fifty-second year. As a military genius and commander he left 
a deeper impress upon the imagination of the world, and fills a 
larger place in history, probably, than any other man who ever lived. 

Selections from the Sources. — Bourrienne, Memoirs of Napoleon 
Bonaparte. Bourrienne was Bonaparte's schoolfellow and comrade, and 
then his private secretary from 1796 to 1802. Tarbell, The Words of 
Napoleon; contains interesting selections from Napoleon's addresses and 
letters. In reading these extracts it should be borne in mind that Napo- 
leon's speeches, like his bulletins, often bore no relation to the actual 
facts or to his own real thoughts and purposes. Robinson, Readings in 
Eziropean History, vol. ii, chaps, xxxvii (last part) and xxxviii. 

Secondary Works. — Among the numerous biographies of Napoleon 
the following possess special merit and authority : Fournier, A., Napoleon 
the First ; Johnston, R. M., Napoleon ; Rose, J. H., The Life of Napoleon I, 
2 vols.; Sloane, W. M., Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 4 vols.; Lanfrey, 
P., The History of Napoleon the First, 4 vols, (left incomplete by the death 
of the author) ; Seeley, J. R, Napoleon the First ; and Ropes, J. C, The 
First Napoleon. Lanfrey makes the Emperor the subject of bitter reproach. 
One of the best extended histories of the Napoleonic period is Thiers, 
L. A., History of the Consulate and the Empire, 12 vols. Excellent short 
accounts are Stephens,. H. Morse, Revolutionary Europe, Jj8g-i8i^, 
chaps, vii-xi; Rose, J. H., The Revolutiotiary and Napoleonic Era, last 
part, chap, vii ; and Andrews, C. M., The Historical Development of Europe, 
vol. i, chap. ii. 

Works dealing with special phases of the history of the period : Mahan, 
A. T., The Influence of Sea Power upoti the French Revolution and Empire, 
vol. ii; Seeley, J. R., Life and Times of Stein, 2 vols.; and Bigelow, P., 
History of the German Struggle for Liberty, 3 vols. See also Lord Rose- 
BERY, Napoleon: the Last Phase; on the Emperor's imprisonment at 
St. Helena. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The sale of Louisiana to the United 
States. 2. The Civil Code. 3. Execution of the Duke of Enghien. 4. The 
Congress at Erfurt. 5. Baron vom Stein and his reforms. 6. Napoleon 
at St. Helena. 7. Queen Louise of Prussia. See Mary McArthur Tuttle's 
The Mother of an Emperor. 



III. THE RESTORATION OF 1815 AND THE DEMO- 
CRATIC REACTION: THE SEQUEL TO 
THE REVOLUTION 
(1815-1906) 



CHAPTER LXIX 
THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND THE HOLY ALLIANCE 

962. Ideas bequeathed by the French Revolution to the Nine- 
teenth Century. — The social and political history of Europe 
since the overthrow of Napoleon is the sequel of the history 
of the great social and political upheaval which we have been 
witnessing. The dominant forces at work throughout this period 
have been the ideas or principles inherited from the French 
Revolution. 

There were three of these ideas, with which, as revolution- 
ary forces in history, we have already become familiar in tracing 
the story of the Revolution and the Empire. The first was the 
idea or principle of equality ; the second, that of the sovereignty 
of the people ; the third, that of nationality. These principles or 
ideas, as we have said, were the precious political heritage which 
the nineteenth century received from the Revolution. But these 
ideas have not had free course. They have come into conflict 
with certain opposing doctrines with which they have had to 
struggle for supremacy. And this brings us to the starting point 
of the history of the last century, — the celebrated Congress of 
Vienna. 

963. The Congress of Vienna (September, 1814-June, 1815). — 
After the first abdication of Napoleon, as we have seen, the 
European sovereigns, either in person or by their representatives, 
met at Vienna to readjust the affairs of the Continent. As we 
shall hereafter, in connection with the history of the separate 

679 



680 THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA 

European countries, have occasion to say something respecting 
the relations of each to the Congress, we shall here say only a 
word regarding the spirit and temper of the assembly and the 
general character of its work. 

The Vienna commissioners seemed to have but one thought 
and aim, — to restore everything as nearly as possible to its con- 
dition before the Revolution. The principle of nationality was 
wholly ignored, while that of the sovereignty of the people was, 
by most of the plenipotentiaries, looked upon as a principle of 
disorder to be repressed in every possible way. 

In making distribution of the territories recovered from Napo- 
leon, the Vienna map makers took no account of the rights and 
claims of race or nationality. The inhabitants of the countries 
available for division were apportioned among the different sov- 
ereigns exactly as a herd of cattle might be divided up and 
apportioned among different owners. Thus the Belgian and 
Dutch provinces were united into a single state, which under 
the name of the Kingdom of the Netherlands was given to a 
prince of the House of Orange. 

A great part of what had been Poland was made into a subject 
kingdom of the Russian Empire. The Poles were informed that 
they must give up all thought and hope of the restoration of their 
national independence. 1 

Lombardy and Venetia in Upper Italy, along with other lands, 
were given to Austria. This extension of Austrian rule over 
Italian lands was one of the grossest violations of the principles of 
nationality of which the Congress was guilty, and was to be sig- 
nally avenged when the hour for Italian unity and independence 
arrived. 

The principle of popular sovereignty was treated with like dis- 
regard. The restored rulers were for the most part the old pre- 
revolutionary despots come to their own again. Their desire was 

1 Sweden was confirmed in the possession of Norway, which Denmark lost as a 
consequence of her alliance with Napoleon. The two countries were to form a dual 
monarchy, each having its own Parliament, or Diet, but united under a single crown. 
This arrangement subsisted until 1905, when Norway declared the union dissolved, 
and, choosing Prince Charles of Denmark as king, became an independent kingdom. 









sH \ 






fc o \ 






5r 








P4w 








P H - 


g 






. ^ s " 


n 






»2 " 


eC 






H 






-. 3n 


fc » 






tfN 






^ 


CT /' S 






v _x 


/ j^ 




U„-^ v --f v 


s 


°) 


r \ 




■"v/tf 






PRINCE METTERNICH 68l 

to rule in the old arbitrary way; but there were those among them 
who realized that the old absolutism could not with safety be rees- 
tablished. Hence constitutions were talked about. Louis XVIII 
had been required by the terms of the treaties of Paris to give 
France a constitution, the allies understanding perfectly that if 
the restored Bourbons should attempt to rule as absolute sover- 
eigns there would be trouble again which would unsettle every- 
thing in Europe. But the only states, besides France, which at 
this time actually received constitutions were the minor states of 
the Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, and Norway. Practically 
the old regime of absolutism was almost everywhere reestablished. 

But the Revolution had impaired beyond restoration reverence 
for the divine right of kings. An attempt to restore autocratic 
government in Europe was an attempt to restore an outgrown 
cult, — to set up again the fallen Dagon in his place. Notwith- 
standing, the commissioners at Vienna, blind to the spirit and 
tendencies of the times, did set up once more the broken idol, 
— only, however, to see it flung down again by the memorable 
political upheavals of the next half century. The kings had had 
their Congress; the people were to have theirs, — in 1820 and 
'30 and '48. 

964. Prince Metternich and the Holy Alliance. — The spirit of 
the monarchical restoration of 18 15 was incarnate in the cele- 
brated Austrian minister, Prince Metternich. 

This man hated the Revolution, which to him was the spirit 
of evil let loose in the world. The demand of the people for a 
share in government he regarded as presumptuous, and was wholly 
convinced that any concession to their demands could result in 
nothing save horrible confusion and bloodshed. Metternich ex- 
erted a vast influence upon the history of the years from 18 15 
to 1848. This period might appropriately be called the Age of 
Metternich. 

The activity of Metternich during the earlier portion of the 
period of his ascendancy was closely connected with a celebrated 
league known as the Holy Alliance. This was a religious league 
formed just after the fall of Napoleon by the Tsar Alexander and 



682 THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA 

having as its chief members Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The 
ostensible object of the league was the maintenance of religion, 
peace, and order in Europe and the reduction to practice in 
politics of the maxims of Christ. The several sovereigns enter- 
ing the union promised to be fathers to their people, to rule in 
love and with reference solely to the promotion of the welfare of 
their subjects. 

All this had a very millennial look. But the Holy Alliance very 
soon became practically a league for the maintenance of absolute 
principles of government, in opposition to the liberal tendencies 
of the age. Under the pretext of maintaining religion, justice, 
and order, the sovereigns of the union acted in concert to sup- 
press every movement for political liberty among their subjects. 

Selections from the Sources. — Memoirs of Prince Metternich (trans, by 
Mrs. Alexander Napier), vol. ii, pp. 553-599, and vols, iii-v. These volumes 
cover the years from 181 5 to 1829. They are of the first importance for this 
period. Ford, Life and Letters of Madame Kriidener. This work lights up 
a remarkable passage in the life of the Russian Emperor Alexander I, and 
reveals the genesis of the Holy Alliance. Translations and Reprints, vol. i, 
No. 3, " The Restoration and the European Policy of Metternich." 

Secondary Works. — Among the great number of works on nineteenth- 
century history the following are among the best of those in English 
which present in brief survey the whole or some considerable part of the 
history of the period : Fyffe, C. A., A History of Modern Europe, 1792- 
1878 (Popular Edition); Phillips, W. A., Modern Europe, 18x5-1899; 
Andrews, C. M., The Historical Development of Modem Europe, 2 vols. ; 
Seignobos, C, A Political History of Europe since 1814; Whitcomb, M., 
A History of Modern Europe; Robinson, J. H., An Lntroduction to the 
History of Western Europe ; Muller, W., Political History of Recent Times ; 
and Judson, H., Europe in the Ninetee7ith Century. 

Biographies and works dealing with some particular subject or some 
limited portion of the nineteenth century: Stephens, H. Morse, Revolu- 
tionary Europe, 1789-1815, " Introduction," for suggestive paragraphs on 
the principles which have molded nineteenth-century history, and chap, xi, 
for the Congress of Vienna; Malleson, G. B., Life of Prince Metternich ; 
Lowell, A. L., Governments and Parties in Continental Europe, 2 vols. ; 
and Rose, J. H., The Development of the European Nations, 2 vols. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Prince Metternich and his system. 
2. Madame Kriidener and the Tsar Alexander I. 



CHAPTER LXX 

FRANCE SINCE THE SECOND RESTORATION 

(18 i 5-1906) 

965. The Reign of Louis XVIII (i8i5[i4]-i824). — " Your 
king, whose fathers reigned over your fathers for more than eight 
centuries, now returns to devote the rest of his days to defend 
and to comfort you." Such were the words used by Louis upon 
his second return to his people after Waterloo. The events of 
the Hundred Days had instructed and humbled him. Profiting 
by his experience, Louis ruled throughout a great part of the 
remainder of his reign with reasonable heed to the changes 
effected by the Revolution. But as he grew old and infirm he 
yielded more and more to the extreme Royalist party, which was 
again raising its head, and the government entered upon a course 
looking to the restoration of the old order of things. 

966. The Reign of Charles X (1 824-1 830) ; the Revolution of 
1830. — Upon the death of Louis in 1824 and the accession of 
Charles X, this reactionary policy soon became more pronounced. 
The new king seemed utterly incapable of profiting by the teach- 
ings of the past. It was particularly his blind, stubborn course 
that gave point to the saying, "A Bourbon learns nothing and 
forgets nothing." 

It is not necessary for our purpose that we rehearse in detail 
what Charles did or what he failed to do. His aim was to undo 
the work of the Revolution, just as it was the aim of James II 
in England to undo the work of the Puritan Revolution. He 
disregarded the constitution, restored the clergy to power, re- 
established a strict censorship of the press, and changed the 
laws by royal proclamation. He seemed bent on restoring divine- 
right monarchy in France. He declared that he would rather 
saw wood for a living than rule after the fashion of the English 
kings. 

683 



684 FRANCE SINCE THE SECOND RESTORATION 

The outcome might have been foreseen. Paris rose in revolt. 
Charles was escorted to the seacoast, whence he took ship for 
England. 

France did not at this time think of a republic. She was in- 
clined to try further the experiment of a constitutional monarchy. 
Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, who represented the younger 
branch of the Bourbon family, was placed on the throne and the 
constitution was revised. In the charter which Louis XVIII had 
granted he had styled himself " King of France by the grace 
of God." The new constitution declared Louis Philippe to be 
" King of the French by the grace of God and by the will of 
the nation." The first principle of the Revolution — the sover- 
eignty of the people — was thus embodied in the fundamental 
law of France. 

967. Effect upon Europe of the "July Revolution" of 1830; 
Origin of the Kingdom of Belgium. ■ — The convulsion in Paris 
shook all the restored thrones, and for a moment threatened to 
topple into ruins the whole fabric of absolutism that had been so 
carefully upreared by the Congress of Vienna. In the Netherlands 
the artificial order established in 1815 (sec. 963) was wholly de- 
stroyed. The Belgians arose, declared themselves independent of 
Holland, adopted a liberal constitution, and elected Leopold of 
Saxe-Coburg as their king (1831). Thus came into existence 
the separate kingdom of Belgium. 

968. The Revolution of 1848 and the Establishment of the Sec- 
ond Republic. — The reign of Louis Philippe up to 1848 was very 
unquiet, yet was not marked by any disturbance of great impor- 
tance. But during all this time the ideas of the Revolution were 
working among the people, and the democratic party was con- 
stantly gaining in strength. Finally there came a demand for 
the extension of the suffrage. At this time there were only about 
two hundred thousand voters in France, the possession of a certain 
amount of property being required as a qualification for the fran- 
chise. The government steadily refused all electoral reforms. 
Guizot, the king's chief minister, declared that " this world is no 
place for universal suffrage." 



THE SECOND EMPIRE 



68 5 



There came an uprising like that of 1830. The center of this 
disturbance, of course, was Paris. Louis Philippe fled to Eng- 
land. After his departure the Paris mob dragged the throne out 
of the Tuileries and made a bonfire of it. 

The Second Republic was now set up. A new constitution 
established universal suffrage. An election being ordered, Louis 
Napoleon Bonaparte, a nephew of 
the great Napoleon, was chosen 
President of the new Republic 
(Dec. 10, 1848). 

The Paris " February Revolu- 
tion," as it is called, lighted the 
beacon fires of liberty throughout 
Europe. " It is scarcely an exag- 
geration to say that, during the 
month of March, 1848, not a 
single day passed without a con- 
stitution being granted some- 
where." 

969. The Second Empire (1852- 
1870). — The life of the Second 
Republic spanned only three years. 
By almost exactly the same steps 
as those by which his uncle had mounted the imperial throne, 
Louis Napoleon now also ascended to the imperial dignity, crush- 
ing the Republic as he rose. 

A contest having arisen between the President and the National 
Assembly, the President planned a coup d'etat, — a second Eight- 
eenth Brumaire (sec. 933). He caused the arrest at night of the 
most prominent of the deputies opposed to him in the Assembly 
and dissolved that body. His appeal to the people to indorse 
what he had done met with a most extraordinary response. By 
a majority of almost seven million votes 1 the nation approved 
the President's coup d'etat and rewarded him for it by extend- 
ing his term of office to ten years. This was in effect the revival 

1 The exact vote was 7,481,216 to 684,419. 




Fig. 152. — Napoleon III 
(After a portrait by F. Winter- 
halter) 



686 FRANCE SINCE THE SECOND RESTORATION 

of the Consulate of 1799. The next year Louis Napoleon was 
made Emperor, and took the title of Napoleon III (1852). 

As the Second and the Third Republic were simply revivals 
and continuations of the First Republic, so was the Second Em- 
pire merely the revival and continuation of the First Empire. It 
was virtually the same in origin, in spirit, and in policy. 

Louis Napoleon had declared that the Empire meant peace. 
But it meant anything except that. The pages of its history are 
filled with the records of wars. There were three important ones 
in which the armies of the Empire took part, — the Crimean War 
(1853-1856), the Austro- Sardinian War (1859), and the Franco- 
Prussian War (1870-187 1). The first two of these wars need 
not detain us at this time, since we shall speak of them later in 
connection with Russian and Italian affairs. 2 

The real cause of the third war, the one between Prussia and 
France, was French jealousy of the growing power of Prussia 
(sec. 1013). With everything in a state of culpable and incred- 
ible unreadiness, France, "with a light heart," plunged into the 
fateful struggle. The French had no other thought than that 
their armies would repeat the campaign of Jena and Auerstadt 
(sec. 946). " Down with Prussia ! On to Berlin ! " was the cry. 
There came a quick and terrible disillusionment. In a few days 
after the French declaration of war the great German hosts 
had been gathered. Three immense armies, numbering half a mil- 
lion of men, all animated by the spirit of 18 13, swept over the 
frontier. One large French army was defeated in the memorable 
battle of Gravelotte (August 18, 1870) and shut up in Metz. Then 
followed the surrender at Sedan, where eighty-three thousand 
men, including the Emperor himself, gave themselves up as pris- 
oners of war 3 (Sept. 2, 1870). 

The German columns now advanced to Paris and began the 
investment of the city (Sept. 19, 1870). All reasonable hope of 
a successful defense of the capital was soon destroyed by the 

2 See sees. 99S and 1019. 

3 After the war Louis Napoleon found an asylum in England (at Chiselhurst), 
where he died Jan. 9, 1873. 



THE THIRD REPUBLIC 687 

surrender to the Germans of Marshal Bazaine at Metz (Oct. 23, 
1870). One hundred and seventy-three thousand soldiers and 
six thousand officers became prisoners of war, — the largest army 
ever taken captive. But Paris held out stubbornly, with great 
suffering from cold and hunger, three months longer ; and then, 
all outside measures for raising the siege having failed, capitu- 
lated (Jan. 30, 1 871). The terms of the treaty that followed were 
that France should surrender to Germany the Rhenish province 
of Alsace and one half of Lorraine, and pay an indemnity of five 
thousand million francs (about $1,000,000,000). Never before 
was such a ransom paid by a nation. 

The Red Republicans, or Communists, of Paris, indignant at 
the terms of the treaty, organized a Committee of Public Safety in 
imitation of that of 1793, and called the population of the cap- 
ital to arms. The government finally succeeded in suppressing 
the insurgents, though only after the destruction by fire of many 
public buildings, and frightful slaughters in the streets and squares 
of the city. 

970. The Third Republic (1870- ). — The Third Republic 
was now organized. M. Thiers, the historian, became its first 
President. France has now (1906) been under the government 
of the Third Republic for thirty-six years, a longer period of free- 
dom from revolution than any other since 1792. The current 
of political events, however, has during this time run somewhat 
turbulently. There have been many changes of presidents 4 and 
of ministries, and much party rancor has been displayed ; yet 
in spite of all untoward circumstances the cause of the Republic 
has steadily advanced, while that of the Monarchy and that of the 
Empire have as steadily gone backward. Bourbons and Bonapartes, 
like Stuarts, have gone into an exile from which there is no return. 

Many of the difficulties and problems which have confronted 
the Republic were legacies to it from the Monarchy and the 

4 These are the presidents of the Republic since the resignation of Thiers in 
1873: Marshal MacMahon (resigned), 1873-1879; M. Grevy (resigned), 1879-1S87; 
M. Carnot (assassinated), 1887-1894; M. Casimir-Perier (resigned), 1894-1895; M. 
Felix Faure (died in office), 1895-1899; M. Loubet (1899-1906); and M. Clement 
Armand Fallieres (1906- ' ). 



688 FRANCE SINCE THE SECOND RESTORATION 

Empire, or more directly from the Franco-Prussian War. One 
unfortunate heritage from the war that destroyed the Empire 
is the Alsace and Lorraine question. The French people have 
never been able to reconcile themselves to the loss of these prov- 
inces, and their determination to regain them has contributed 
largely to convert Fiance, and the whole Continent as well, into 
a permanent armed camp, and to make times of peace almost as 
burdensome to the nations as times of war. 

A second legacy to the Republic was influential parties of 
Monarchists and Imperialists, who have endeavored in every 
way to discredit the republican regime, and who have watched 
for an opportunity to set up again either the Monarchy or the 
Empire. The dangerous intrigues of these parties led in 1886 
to the expulsion from France of all the Bourbon and Bonaparte 
claimants of the throne and their direct heirs. 

As to the part which France as a Republic has taken in recent 
colonial enterprises, particularly in the opening up to civilization 
of the continent of Africa, we shall find it more convenient to 
speak in another connection (sees. 1031 and 1032). 

Selections from the Sources. — Forbes, My Experience of the War 
between France and Germany. Robinson, Readings in Etiropean History, 
vol. ii, chap, xxxix, pp. 536-542. For material for a systematic study of the 
period, the special student should turn to Anderson, Constitutions and 
Other Select Documents. 

Secondary Works. — In most of the works cited for the preceding 
chapter will be found chapters and sections dealing with French affairs 
during the period under review. To these authorities add the following : 
Martin, H., A Popular History of France, vols, ii (last part) and hi; Dick- 
inson, G. L., Revolutio7i and Reaction in Mode?-n France ; and Lebon, A., 
and Pelet, P., France as it Is. 

For the Second Empire : Jerrold, B., The Life of Napoleon III, 
4 vols., and Forbes, A., The Life of Napoleon- the Third. For brief sum- 
maries of the events of the period : Lebon, A., Modern France, chaps, viii- 
xvi ; Adams, G. B., The Growth of the French A 7 ation, chap, xviii ; and 
Hassall, A., The French People, chaps, xviii-xxi and xxiii. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Alfred Dreyfus. 2. Ferdinand de Les- 
seps and the Panama Canal. 3. France and the Vatican. 



CHAPTER LXXI 

ENGLAND SINCE THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO 

(i 8 i 5-1 906) 

971. The Three Chief Matters. — English history during the 
nineteenth century embraces a multitude of events. A short 
chapter covering the period will possess no instructive value 
unless it reduces this mass of facts to some sort of unity by 
placing events in relation with their causes, and thus shows how 
they are connected with a few broad movements or tendencies. 

Studying the period in this way, we shall find that very many 
of its leading events may be summed up under the three follow- 
ing heads: (1) progress towards democracy; (2) extension of 
the principle of religious equality ; and (3) the growth of the 
British colonial empire. 1 

We shall attempt nothing more in the present chapter than to 
indicate the most prominent matters that should claim the stu- 
dent's attention along the first two lines of inquiry, reserving 
for later sections the consideration of England's colonial affairs. 

I. Progress towards Democracy 

972. Introductory. — The English Revolution of 1688 trans- 
ferred authority from the king to the Parliament. The elective 
branch of that body, however, rested upon a very narrow elect- 
oral basis. Out of upwards of five million Englishmen who should 
have had a voice in the government, less than two hundred thou- 
sand were voters, and these were chiefly of the rich upper classes. 
The political democratizing of England during the nineteenth 

l A fourth line of study which also touches matters of importance is England's 
relations with Ireland. This topic embraces such matters as the following: the 
union of the Legislatures of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801 ; the agitation under 
O'Connell for the Repeal of the Union ; the Irish land laws ; the Home Rule move- 
ment, etc. 



690 ENGLAND SINCE THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO 

century consists in the giving to every intelligent and honest man 
a share in the government under which he lives. 

973. Effects of the French Revolution upon Liberalism in Eng- 
land ; Reform versus Revolution. — The French Revolution at 
first gave a fresh impulse to liberal tendencies. The English 
Liberals watched the course of the French Republicans with the 
deepest interest and sympathy. It will be recalled how the states- 
man Fox rejoiced at the fall of the Bastille, and what auguries of 
hope he saw in that event (sec. 897). The young writers, Cole- 
ridge, Wordsworth, and Southey, were all infected with democratic 
sentiments and inspired with a generous enthusiasm for political 
liberty and equality. But the wild excesses of the French levelers 
terrified the English Liberals. There was a sudden revulsion of 
feeling. Liberal sentiments were denounced as dangerous and 
revolutionary. But in a few years after the downfall of Napoleon 
the terrors of the French Revolution were forgotten. Liberal sen- 
timents began to spread among the masses. The people very 
justly complained that, while the English government claimed to 
be a government of the people, they had no part in it. 

Now it is instructive to note the different ways in which 
Liberalism was dealt with by the English government and by 
the rulers on the Continent. In the Continental countries the 
rising spirit of democracy was met by cruel and despotic repres- 
sion. We have seen the result of this policy in France, and 
later shall see the outcome of it in other Continental countries. 
Liberalism triumphed indeed at last, but triumphed only through 
revolution. 

In England the government did not resist the popular demands 
to the point of revolution. It made timely concessions to the 
growing spirit of democracy. Hence here, instead of a series of 
revolutions, we have a series of reform measures which, gradually 
popularizing the House of Commons, at last rendered the English 
nation, not alone in name but in reality, a self-governing people. 

974. The Reform Bill of 1832. — The first Parliamentary step 
in reform was taken in 1832. To understand this important act 
a glance backward becomes necessary. 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1832 691 

When, in 1265, the Commons were first admitted to Parlia- 
ment, members were called only from those cities and boroughs 
whose wealth and population fairly entitled them to representa- 
tion. In the course of time some of these places dwindled in 
population and new towns sprang up ; yet the decayed boroughs 
retained their ancient privilege of sending members to Parlia- 
ment, while the new towns were left entirely without representa- 
tion. Thus Old Sarum, an ancient town now utterly decayed 
and without a single inhabitant, was represented in the Commons 
by two members. Furthermore the sovereign, for the purpose 
of gaining influence in the Commons, had, from time to time, 
given unimportant places the right of returning members to the 
Lower House. It was inevitable that elections in these small or 
"pocket boroughs," as they were called, should often be deter- 
mined by the corrupt influence of the crown or of the great land- 
owners. The Lower House of Parliament was thus filled with the 
friends of the king, or with nominees of territorial magnates. At 
the same time such large, recently grown manufacturing towns 
as Birmingham, Leeds, and Manchester had no representation 
at all in the Commons. 

Agitation was begun for the reform of this corrupt and farcical 
system of representation. The contest between Whigs and Tories, 
or Liberals and Conservatives, was long and bitter, the Con- 
servatives opposing all reform and denying that there was any 
necessity for it. At last public feeling became so strong and 
menacing that the Lords, who were blocking the measure in the 
Upper House, were forced to yield, and the Reform Bill of 1832 
became a law. By this act the English electoral system was radi- 
cally changed. Eighty-six of the " rotten boroughs " were dis- 
franchised or semi-disfranchised, and the hundred and forty-two 
seats in the Lower House taken from them were given to dif- 
ferent counties and to large towns hitherto unrepresented. The 
bill also somewhat increased the number of electors by extend- 
ing the right of voting to all persons in the towns owning or 
leasing property of a certain value, and by lowering the property 
qualification of voters in the counties. 



692 ENGLAND SINCE THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO 

The importance of this reform bill can hardly be exaggerated. 
It is the Magna Carta of English political democracy. 2 

975. The Municipal Reform Act of 1835. — The government 
of the English towns of this period needed reform as urgently as 
had the British Parliament. This municipal system was a system 
inherited from the Middle Ages. Most of the towns were ruled by 
corrupt oligarchies. Long agitation for their overthrow resulted 
in the passing of the Municipal Reform Act of 1835. This act ac- 
complished for the government of the cities what the Reform Bill 
of 1832 had effected for the general government of the kingdom. 

976. Chartism: the Revolutionary Year of 1848. — Although 
the Reform Bill of 1832 was almost revolutionary in the princi- 
ple it established, still it went only a little way in the application 
of that principle. It admitted to the franchise the middle classes 
only. The great laboring class were given no part in the govern- 
ment. They now began an agitation, characterized by much 
bitterness, known as Chartism, from a document called the 
" People's Charter," which embodied the reforms they desired. 
Among these were universal suffrage and vote by ballot. 

The agitation went on with more or less violence until 1848, 
in which year, encouraged by the revolutions then shaking almost 
every throne on the European continent, the Chartists indulged 
in riotous demonstrations, which frightened the law-abiding citi- 
zens and brought discredit upon themselves. Their organization 
now fell to pieces. The reforms, however, which they had labored 

2 The reform of the House of Commons gave an impulse to legislation of an 
humanitarian and popular character. Jn 1833 an act was passed in the British Com- 
mons for the abolition of slavery. Nearly 800,000 slaves, chiefly in the British West 
Indies, were freed at a cost to the English nation of ^20,000,000. This same year 
(1833) the first effective Factory Act was passed. This was the beginning of a long 
series of laws which gradually corrected the almost incredible abuses, particularly 
in connection with the employment of children, which had crept into the English 
factory system. A similar series of laws regulated labor in the mines. Also this same 
year Parliament voted an annual grant of ^20,000 to aid in the erection of school- 
houses. This was the first step taken by the English government in the promotion of 
public education. In 1846 England, by the repeal of her " corn laws," abandoned the 
commercial policy of protection, which favored the great landowners, and adopted 
that of free trade. The chief advocates of this important measure were Richard 
Cobden and John Bright. 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1867 693 

to secure, were, in the main, desirable and just, and the most im- 
portant of them have since been adopted and made a part of the 
English constitution. 

977. The Reform Bill of 1867 and the Education Act of 1870. 
— The Reform Bill of 1867 was simply another step taken by 
England in the direction of the Reform Bill of 1832. Like that 
measure, it was passed only after long and violent agitation and 
discussion both without and within the walls of Parliament. The 
main effect of the bill was the extension of the right of voting, 
— the enfranchisement of the great "fourth estate." 

As after the Reform Bill of 1832, so now the attention of Par- 
liament was directed to the matter of public instruction ; for all 
recognized that universal education must go along with universal 
suffrage. Three years after the passage of this second reform 
bill Parliament passed an education act (1870) which aimed to 
provide an elementary education for every child in the British 
Isles by investing the local authorities with power to establish and 
maintain schools and compel the attendance of the children. 

978. The Reform Bill of 1884. — One of the Conservative 
leaders, the Earl of Derby, in the discussions upon the Reform 
Bill of 1867, said, " No doubt we are making a great experiment, 
and taking a leap in the dark." Just seventeen years after the 
passage of that bill the English people were ready to take another 
leap. But they were not now leaping in the dark. The wisdom 
and safety of admitting the lower classes to a share in the govern- 
ment had been demonstrated. 

In 1884 Mr. Gladstone, then Prime Minister, introduced and 
pushed to a successful vote a new reform bill more radical and 
sweeping in its provisions than any preceding one. It increased 
the number of voters from about three millions to five millions. 
The qualification of voters in the counties was made the same as 
that required of voters in the boroughs. Hence its effect was to 
enfranchise the great agricultural classes. 

979. The Reform of Rural Local Government. — Parliament 
and the government of the municipalities were now fairly democ- 
ratized. The rural districts were the last to feel the influence of 



694 ENGLAND SINCE THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO 

the liberal movement ; but it finally reached these, and the work 
of democratic reconstruction has been rounded out and com- 
pleted by different acts of Parliament, which have put more 
directly into the hands of the people of each of the smaller sub- 
divisions of the realm the management of their local affairs. 




Fig. 153. — William Ewart Gladstone. (After a painting 
by Fratiz von Lenbach) 



980. Only the Forms of Monarchy remain. — The English gov- 
ernment in its local as well as in its national branches is now in 
reality as democratic as our own. Only the forms of the aristo- 
cratic monarchy remain. It does not seem possible that these, 
in spite of the English love of ancient forms, can long with- 
stand the encroachments of democracy. Hereditary right and 



RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND EQUALITY 695 

privilege, as represented by the House of Lords and the Crown, 
must in time be abolished. Even now whenever the Lords attempt 
to thwart the will of the Commons there are ominous threats of 
abolishing the Upper House, as at present constituted. 

II. Extension of the Principle of Religious 
Equality 

981 . Religious Freedom and Religious Equality. — Alongside 
the political movement traced in the preceding section ran a similar 
one in the religious realm. This was a growing recognition by the 
English people of the true principle of religious toleration. 

At the opening of the nineteenth century there was in England 
religious freedom, but no religious equality. That is to say, one 
might be a Catholic or a Protestant dissenter without fear of 
persecution. Dissent from the Established Church was not unlaw- 
ful ; but one's being a Catholic or a Protestant nonconformist 
disqualified him from holding certain public offices. Where there 
exists such discrimination against any religious sect, or. where 
any one sect is sustained by the government, there of course is 
no religious equality, although there may be religious freedom. 

Progress in this direction, then, will consist in the removal of 
all civil disabilities from Catholics, Protestant dissenters, and Jews, 
and the placing of all sects on an absolute equality before the law. 

982. Methodism and its Effects upon Toleration One thing 

that helped to bring prominently forward the question of eman- 
cipating nonconformists from the civil disabilities under which 
they were placed, was the great religious movement known as 
Methodism. By vastly increasing the body of Protestant dissenters, 
Methodism gave new strength to the agitation for the repeal 
of the laws which bore so heavily upon them. So now began a 
series of legislative acts which made a more and more perfect 
application of the principle of religious equality. We can refer 
to only two or three of the most important of these measures. 

983. Disabilities removed from Protestant Dissenters (1828). — 
One of the earliest and most important of the acts of Parliament 



696 ENGLAND SINCE THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO 

in this century in recognition of the principle of religious equality 
was the repeal of the Corporation and Test acts, in so far as they 
bore upon Protestant dissenters. These were acts passed in the 
reign of Charles II, which required every officer of a corporation, 
and all persons holding civil and military positions, to take cer- 
tain oaths and partake of the communion according to the rites 
of the Anglican Church. It is true that these laws were not now 
strictly enforced ; nevertheless the laws were invidious and vexa- 
tious, and the Protestant dissenters demanded their repeal. 

Those opposed to the repeal argued that the principle of reli- 
gious toleration did not require it. They insisted that, where 
every one has perfect freedom of worship, it is no infringement 
of the principle of toleration for the government to refuse to 
employ as a public servant one who dissents from the State 
Church. The result of the debate in Parliament was the repeal 
of such parts of the ancient acts as it was necessary to rescind 
in order to relieve Protestant dissenters. 

984. Disabilities removed from the Catholics (1829). — The 
bill of 1828 gave no relief to Catholics. They were still excluded 
from Parliament and various civil offices by the declarations of 
belief and the oaths required of officeholders, — declarations and 
oaths which no good Catholic could conscientiously make. They 
now demanded that the same concessions be made them that had 
been granted Protestant dissenters. A threatened revolt on the 
part of the Irish Catholics hurried through Parliament the prog- 
ress of what was known as the Catholic Emancipation Act. 
This law opened Parliament and all the offices of the kingdom, 
below the Crown, — save that of Regent, of Lord High Chan- 
cellor of England and Ireland, of Lord Deputy of Ireland, and 
a few others, — to the Catholic subjects of the realm. 

985. Disabilities removed from the Jews (1858). — Persons 
professing the Jewish religion were still laboring under all the dis- 
abilities which had now been removed from Protestant dissenters 
and Catholics. In 1858 an act (Jewish Relief Act) was passed by 
Parliament which so changed the oath required of a person taking 
office — the oath contained the words, " Upon the true faith of a 



DISESTABLISHMENT OF THE IRISH CHURCH 697 



Christian " — as to open all public positions, except a few special 
offices, to persons of the Jewish faith. 

986. Disestablishment of the Irish Church (1869). — Forty 
years after the Catholic Emancipation Act the English govern- 
ment took another great step in the direction of religious equality 
by the disestablishment of the State Church in Ireland. 

The Irish have always and steadily refused to accept the religion 
which their English con- 
querors have somehow felt 
constrained to try to force 
upon them. The vast major- 
ity of the people are to-day, 
and ever have been, Cath- 
olics ; yet up to the time 
where we have now arrived 
these Irish Catholics had 
been compelled to pay tithes 
and fees for the mainte- 
nance among them of the 
Anglican Church worship. 
Meanwhile their own 
churches, in which the great 
masses were instructed and 
cared for spiritually, had to 
be kept up by voluntary con- 
tributions. 

The proposal to do away 
with this grievance by the 
disestablishment of the State 
Church in Ireland was bit- 
terly opposed by the Con- 
servatives, headed by Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli ; but at 
length, after a memorable debate, the Liberals, under the lead 
of Bright and Gladstone, the latter then Prime Minister, carried 
the measure. This was in 1869, but the actual disestablishment 
was not to take place until the year 187 1, at which time the 




Fig. 154. — Lord Beaconsfield (Dis- 
raeli), "the Courtier Premier." 
(From the monument in Westminster 
Abbey) 



698 ENGLAND SINCE THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO 

Irish Church, ceasing to exist as a state institution, became a free 
Episcopal Church. 

987. Proposed Disestablishment of the State Church in England, 
Scotland, and Wales. — The principle of religious equality de- 
mands, in the opinion of many Liberals, the disestablishment 
likewise of the State Church in England, Scotland, 3 and Wales. 
They feel that for the government to maintain any particular sect 
is to give the state a monopoly in religion. They would have the 
churches of all denominations placed on an absolute equality. 
Especially in Scotland and Wales is the sentiment in favor of 
disestablishment very strong. 

Selections from the Sources. — Lee, Source-Book, pp. 483-541; Ken- 
dall, Source-Book, chaps, xx and xxi ; and Colby, Selections, Nos. 1 13— 1 17. 
The most important documents for the period will be found in Adams and 
Stephens, Select Documents of English Constitutional History, pp. 497-555. 

Secondary Works. — For Parliamentary reform : May, T. E., The Con- 
stitutional History of England, 2 vols. ; GAMMAGE, R. G., History of the 
Chartist Movement, 1837-54; McCarthy, J., The Epoch of Reform ; Car- 
lyle, T., Chartism ; and Dickinson, G. L., The Development of Parliament 
during the Nineteenth Century. 

For Irish matters : Lecky, W. E. H., History of Ireland in the Eighteenth 
Century, vol. v, chaps, xii and xiii, for the legislative union of England and 
Ireland ; Two Centuries of Irish History, i6g/-7Syo, by different writers, 
with an Introduction by James Bryce ; Dicey, E., England's Case against 
Home Rule ; McCarthy, J. H., Ireland since the Union; and King, D. B., 
The Irish Question. 

Biographies : Morley, J., The Life of Richard Cobden, 2 vols., and The 
Life of William Ewart Gladstone, 3 vols. In the last biography (vol. i, pp. 
635-640) read the remarkable letter of young Gladstone to his father on 
the choice of a profession. Brandes, G., Lord Beaconsfield. 

For the social, intellectual, and industrial life of the period : Traill, 
H. D., Social England, vol. vi ; and Cheyney, E. P., An Introduction to the 
Social History of England, chaps, viii-x. For a general review of the events 
of the period : McCarthy, J., History of Our Own Times (various editions). 

Topics for Class Reports. ■ — 1. Lord Beaconsfield, the courtier Premier. 
2. Gladstone, the Liberal Premier. 3. John Bright, the orator. 4. Daniel 
O'Connell, the Irish patriot. 5. Irish agrarian troubles and agrarian legis- 
lation. 6. Irish Home Rule. 

3 The Established Church in Scotland is the Presbyterian. 



CHAPTER LXXII 
THE LIBERATION AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY 

988. Italy at the Downfall of Napoleon. — The Italian peoples, 
as being the most dangerously infected with the ideas of the Revo- 
lution, were, by the reactionary Congress of Vienna, condemned 
to the most strict and ignominious slavery. The former republics 
were not allowed to restore their ancient institutions, while the 
petty principalities were handed over in almost every case to the 
tyrants or to the heirs of the tyrants who had ruled them before 
the Revolution. 

Austria, as has already been stated, appropriated Venetia and 
Lombardy, and from Northern Italy assumed to direct the affairs 
of the whole peninsula (sec. 963). Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and 
Lucca were given to princes of the House of Hapsburg. Naples 
was restored to its old Bourbon rulers. The Pope and Victor 
Emmanuel I, king of Sardinia (Piedmont), were the only native 
rulers, but they also were absolutists. The Italians were thus 
made "a Helot nation." Italy, in the words of Metternich, was 
merely " a geographical expression." 

But the Revolution had sown the seeds of liberty, and time only 
was needed for their maturing. The Cisalpine, Ligurian, Parthe- 
nopean, and Tiberine republics, short-lived though they were, had 
awakened in the people an aspiration for self-government ; while 
Napoleon's kingdom of Italy, though equally delusive, had never- 
theless inspired thousands of Italian patriots with the sentiment 
of national unity. Thus the French Revolution, disappointing as 
seemed its issue, really imparted to Italy her first impulse in the 
direction of freedom and national organization. 

989. Arbitrary Rule of the Restored Princes. — The setting up 
of the overturned thrones meant, of course, the reinstating of the 
old tyrannies. The restored despots came back with an impla- 
cable hatred of everything French. The liberal constitutions of 

699 



700 LIBERATION AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY 

the revolutionary period were set aside, and all French institu- 
tions that were supposed to tend in the least to Liberalism were 
swept away. 

In Sardinia, King Victor Emmanuel I, the " royal Rip Van 
Winkle," instituted a most extreme reactionary policy. Nothing 
that bore the French stamp, nothing that had been set up by 
French hands, was allowed to remain. Even the French furni- 
ture in the royal palace at Turin was thrown out of the windows, 
and the French plants in the royal gardens were pulled up root 
and branch. 

990. The Carbonari: Uprising of 1 820-1821. — The natural 
results of the arbitrary rule of the restored princes was deep and 
widespread discontent. An old secret organization, the members 
of which were known as the Carbonari (charcoal burners), formed 
the nucleus about which gathered the elements of disaffection. 

In 1820, incited by the revolution in Spain, the Carbonari 
raised an insurrection in Naples and forced King Ferdinand to 
grant his Neapolitan subjects a liberal constitution. But Prince 
Metternich, who had been watching the doings of the Neapolitans, 
interfered to mar their plans. Sixty thousand Austrian troops 
were sent to crush the revolutionary movement, the constitution 
was suppressed, Ferdinand was reinstated in his former absolute 
authority, and everything was put back on the old footing. 

Meanwhile a similar revolution was running its course in 
Piedmont. King Victor Emmanuel I, rather than yield to the 
demands of his people for a constitution, gave up his crown and 
was succeeded by his brother Charles Felix, who, by threatening 
to call to his aid the Austrian army, compelled his subjects to 
cease their clamor about kings ruling not by the grace of God 
but by the will of the people. 

The suppression of the Liberal uprisings seemed to Metternich 
the sure pledge of divine favor. He writes exultantly : " I see 
the dawn of a better day. . . . Heaven seems to will that the 
world should not be lost." 

991. The Revolution of 1830-1831. — For just ten years all 
Italy lay in sullen vassalage to Austria. Then the revolutionary 



JOSEPH MAZZINI 701 

years of 1830-1831 witnessed a repetition of the scenes of 1820- 
182 1. The center of the revolution was the Papal States. But 
the presence of Austrian troops, who, " true to their old principle 
of hurrying with their extinguishers to any spot in Italy where 
a crater opened," had poured into Central Italy, resulted in the 
speedy quenching of the flames of the insurrection. 

992 . The Three Parties. — Twice now had Austrian armies 
defeated the aspirations of the Italians for national unity and 
freedom. Italian hatred of these foreign intermeddlers who were 
causing them to miss their destiny grew ever more intense, and 
"Death to the Germans ! " as the Austrians were called, became 
the watch cry that united all the peoples of the peninsula. 

But, while united in their fierce hatred of the Austrians, the 
Italians were divided in their views respecting the best plan 
for national organization. One party wanted a confederation of 
the various states ; a second party wished to see Italy a constitu- 
tional monarchy with the king of Sardinia at its head ; while still 
a third, known as "Young Italy," wanted a republic. 

993. Joseph Mazzini, the Patriot and Prophet. — The leader 
of the third or republican party was the patriot Joseph Mazzini. 
Mazzini was not a narrow nationalist. He recognized the universal 
character of the democratic revolution. The people were oppressed 
not only in Italy but in Spain, in Hungary, in Poland, in Russia, 
in Turkey, — almost everywhere, in truth. Their cause was a com- 
mon cause. In opposition to the Holy Alliance of the princes 
formed with aim to oppress, there must be a Holy Alliance of 
the peoples formed with aim to emancipate. The French Revo- 
lution, he said, had proclaimed the liberty, equality, and fra- 
ternity of individual men ; the new revolution should proclaim 
the liberty, equality, and fraternity of nations. 

In this great work of the emancipation and unification of the 
world, Italy was to be head and guide of the nations. To her 
this post of leadership was assigned by virtue of her leadership 
in the past. Once pagan Rome organized and ruled the world. 
Then papal Rome organized and ruled it for a thousand years. 
Now a third world union was to be formed, and of this union of 



702 LIBERATION AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY 



the free and federated nations Italy, Italy as a republic, was to 
be center and head. The first Rome was the Rome of the Caesars ; 
the second was the Rome of the Popes ; the third was to be the 
Rome of the Italian People. 

Such was Mazzini's interpretation of the drama of world history. 
Such was his splendid ideal. Through kindling the enthusiasm 
of the Italian youth, awakening the sentiment of patriotism, and 
keeping alive the spirit of insurrection, Mazzini rendered a great 
service to the cause of Italian liberation and union. 

994. The Revolution of 1848-1849. — After the suppression of 
the uprising of 1830 until the approach of the memorable year 
1848, Italy lay restless under the heel of her oppressor. The 
republican movements throughout Europe which characterized 
that year of revolutions encouraged the Italian patriots in another 
attempt to achieve independence and nationality. Everywhere 
throughout the peninsula they rose against their despotic rulers 

and forced them to grant constitu- 
tions and institute reforms. 

But through the intervention of the 
Austrians and the French the third 
Italian revolution was brought to 
naught. This interference by the 
French in Italian affairs was prompted 
/ \ by their jealousy of Austria and the 



desire of Louis Napoleon to win the 
good will of the Catholic clergy in 
France. 

Much, however, had been gained. 
The patriots had been taught the 
necessity of united action. Hence- 
forward all were more inclined to 

look upon the kingdom of Sardinia as the only possible basis and 

nucleus of a free and united Italy. 

995. Victor Emmanuel II, Count Cavour, and Garibaldi. — 

Sardinia was a state which had gradually grown into power in the 

northwest corner of the peninsula. The throne was at this time 




Fig. 155. — Victor Emman- 
uel II. (From an engraving) 



SARDINIA IN THE CRIMEAN WAR 703 

held by Victor Emmanuel II (1849-1878), the only constitutional 
ruler in Italy. To him it was that the hopes of the Italian 
patriots now turned. Nor were these hopes to be disappointed. 
Victor Emmanuel was the destined liberator of Italy, or perhaps 
it would be more correct to say that his was the name in which 
the achievement was to be effected by the wise policy of his great 
minister Count Cavour and the reckless daring of the national, 
hero Garibaldi. 

Count Cavour was the Bismarck of Italy, — one of those great 
men who during this formative period in the life of the European 
peoples have earned the title of Nation 
Makers. He was lacking in oratorical 
and poetic gifts. " I cannot make a 
sonnet," he said, "but I can make 
Italy," — an utterance suggested 
doubtless by that of the Athenian 
statesman (Themistocles) who boasted 
that though "he knew nothing of 
music and song, he did know how 
of a mean city to make a great one." 
Cavour was the real maker of modern 
Italy. 

Garibaldi, " the hero of the red 
shirt," the knight-errant of Italian Fig. 156. — Count Cavour 
independence, was a most remarkable 

character. Though yet barely past middle life, he had led a career 
singularly crowded with varied experiences and romantic adven- 
tures. Because of his violent republicanism he had already been 
twice exiled from Italy. 

996. Sardinia in the Crimean War. — In 1855, in pursuance of 
a far-sighted policy, Cavour sent a Sardinian contingent of fifteen 
thousand men to aid England and France against Russia in the 
Crimean War (sec. 10 19), with the two chief aims of giving Sar- 
dinia a standing among the powers of Europe, and of earning the 
gratitude of England and France, so that the Italians in their future 
struggles with Austria might not have to fight their battles alone. 




704 LIBERATION AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY 

A little incident in the trenches of the allies before Sevastopol 
shows in what spirit the Sardinians had gone to the war. A soldier, 
covered with mud and wearied with the everlasting digging, com- 
plained to his superior officer. " Never mind," was the consoling 
reply ; " it is with this mud that Italy is to be made." 

997. Cavour prepares for War with Austria. — Soon after the 
►close of the Crimean War, Cavour received from the French Em- 
peror Napoleon III a promise that a French army, when the 
favorable moment arrived, would aid the Sardinians in driving 
the Austrians out of Italy. In this proffer of help the French 
Emperor was actuated less by gratitude for the aid of the Sardinian 
contingent in the war against Russia than by a desire to lessen 
the power of Austria in Italy and to replace it by French influence, 
and to secure Savoy and Nice, which were to be France's reward 
for her intervention in Sardinia's behalf. 

998. The Austro-Sardinian War (185 9-1 860). — Sardinia now 
began to arm. Austria, alarmed at these demonstrations, called 
upon Sardinia to disarm immediately upon threat of war. Cavour 
eagerly accepted the challenge. The French armies were joined 
to those of Sardinia. The two great victories of Magenta and 
Solferino drove the Austrians out of Lombardy. Just at this junc- 
ture the menacing attitude of Prussia and other German states, 
which were alarmed at the prospective aggrandizement of France, 
and the rapid spread of the revolutionary movement in Italy, which 
foreshadowed the union of all the states of the peninsula in a single 
kingdom, — something which Louis Napoleon did not wish to see 
consummated, 1 - — this new situation of things, in connection with 
other considerations, caused the French Emperor to draw back 
and to enter upon negotiations of peace with the Austrian Emperor 
Francis Joseph at Villafranca. 

The outcome was that Austria retained Venice, but gave up to 
Sardinia the larger part of Lombardy. The Sardinians were bitterly 

1 Napoleon III did not wish for a united Italy any more than he wished for a 
united Germany. His aim was to create a kingdom in Northern Italy which would 
exclude Austria from the peninsula and then to bring about a confederation of all the 
Italian states under the presidency of the Pope. Italy thus reconstructed would, he 
conceived, be fain to look to the French Emperor as her champion and patron. 




Scale of MileB 



ADDITIONS TO THE KINGDOM 705 

disappointed that they did not get Venetia, since at the outset 
the French Emperor had declared that he would free Italy from 
the "Alps to the Adriatic." 

But Sardinia found compensation for Venice in the accession 
of Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and the Romagna, the peoples of 
which states, having discarded their old rulers, besought Victor 
Emmanuel to permit them to unite themselves to his kingdom. 
Thus, as the result of the war, the king of Sardinia had added to 
his subjects a population of seven millions. A long step had been 
taken in the way of Italian unity and freedom. 

999. Sicily and Naples, with Umbria and the Marches, added to 
Victor Emmanuel's Kingdom (1860).- — The adventurous daring 
of the hero Garibaldi now added Sicily and Naples, and indirectly 
Umbria and the Marches, to the possessions of Victor Emmanuel, 
and changed the kingdom of Sardinia into the kingdom of Italy. 

All this took place under the following circumstances. In i860 
the subjects of the Bourbon Francis II, king of the Two Sicilies, 
rose in revolt. Garibaldi, favored by the connivance of the Sar- 
dinian government, having gathered a band of a thousand volun- 
teers, set sail from Genoa for Sicily, where upon landing he assumed 
the title of Dictator of Sicily for Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, 
and quickly drove the troops of King Francis out of the island. 
Then crossing to the mainland he marched triumphantly to Naples, 
whose inhabitants hailed him tumultuously as their deliverer. 

Count Cavour saw that the time had now come for the Sardinian 
government openly to assume guidance of the revolutionary move- 
ment. The papal territories and Naples were accordingly occupied 
by a regular Sardinian army. Meanwhile a plebiscite, or popular 
vote, having been ordered, the papal lands of Umbria and the 
Marches, together with Naples, and Sicily, voted almost unani- 
mously for annexation to the Sardinian kingdom. 

Thus was another long step taken in the unification of Italy. 
Nine millions more of Italians had become the subjects of Victor 
Emmanuel. There was now wanting to complete the union only 
Venetia and Rome, with the lands in the immediate neighbor- 
hood of the latter city, known as the "Patrimony of St. Peter." 



706 LIBERATION AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY 

iooo. Venetia added to the Kingdom (1866). — The Seven 
Weeks' War (sec. ion), which broke out between Prussia and 
Austria in 1866, afforded the Italian patriots the opportunity for 
which they were watching to make Venetia a part of the kingdom 
of Italy. Victor Emmanuel formed an alliance with the king of 
Prussia, one of the conditions of which was that no peace should 
be made with Austria until she had surrendered Venetia to Italy. 
The speedy issue of the war added the coveted territory to the 
dominions of Victor Emmanuel. 

1001. Rome becomes the Capital (1870). — The Italians now 
looked forward impatiently to the time when Rome, the ancient 
mistress of the peninsula, should be their capital. The power of 
the Pope, however, was upheld by the French, and this made it 
impossible for the Italians to have their will in this matter without 
a conflict with France. 

But events soon gave the coveted capital to the Italian govern- 
ment. In 1870 came the sharp, quick war between France and 
Prussia, and the French troops at Rome were summoned home. 
The Italian government at once gave notice to the Pope that 
Rome would henceforth be considered a portion of the kingdom 
of Italy, and forthwith an Italian army entered the city, which by 
a vote of almost a hundred to one resolved to cast in its lot with 
that of the Italian nation. The family was now complete. Italy 
was a nation — and the only great nation in Europe "made not 
by conquest but by consent." 2 

1002. End of the Temporal Power of the Papacy. — The occu- 
pation of Rome by the Italian government marked the end of the 
temporal power of the Pope, and thus the end of the last ecclesi- 
astical state in Europe. The papal troops, with the exception 
of a few guardsmen, were disbanded. The Vatican palace and 
some other buildings with their grounds were reserved to the Pope 
as a place of residence, together with a yearly allowance of over 
six million dollars. 

2 Victor Emmanuel II died in 187S, and his son came to the throne with the title 
of Humbert I. He was assassinated in 1900, and was succeeded by his only son, Victor 
Emmanuel III. 



REFORM AND PROGRESS 



707 



These arrangements have subsisted down to the present time. 
Under them the Pope is not to be regarded as a subject of the 
Italian government but rather as a sovereign residing at Rome. 
His person is inviolable. No Italian officer may enter the Vatican 
or its grounds, which the Italian government respects the same as 
though they were 
foreign territory. 3 

The popes 4 have 
steadily refused to 
recognize the legiti- 
macy of the act 
whereby they were 
deprived of the tem- 
poral government of 
Rome and the Papal 
States, and have pro- 
tested against it by 
refraining from set- 
ting foot outside the 
gardens of the Vati- 
can, by refusing to 
accept the annuity 
provided for them, 
and in various other 
ways. 

1003. Reform 
and Progress. — The antagonism between the holy see and the 
Italian government, in connection with other hindrances, has 
tended to retard Italy's progress under the new regime. Yet very 
much has been accomplished since the winning of independence 

3 Just a few months before the loss of his temporal sovereignty a great council of 
the Catholic Church (the Vatican Council of 1869-1870) had by a solemn vote pro- 
claimed the doctrine of papal infallibility, which declares the decisions of the Pope, 
when speaking ex cathedra, " on questions of faith anfl morals," to be infallible. 

4 Pius IX died in 1878 and was followed in the pontificate by Leo XIII, who died 
July 20, 1903, at the patriarchal age of ninety-three, after having won a place among 
the greatest and the best of the popes. The College of Cardinals elected as his suc- 
cessor Cardinal Joseph Sarto, Patriarch of Venice, who assumed the title of Pius X. 




Fig. 157. — Pope Pius X. (From a photograph) 



708 LIBERATION AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY 

and nationality. Brigandage, an element of the bad heritage from 
the time of servitude, oppression, and disunion, has been in a 
great degree suppressed ; railways have been built ; the Alps have 
been tunneled ; the healthfulness of the Campagna and other dis- 
tricts has been increased by extensive systems of drainage, and 
regions long given over to desolation have been made habitable 
and productive ; the dense ignorance and the deep moral degra- 
dation of the masses, particularly in the southern parts of the 
peninsula, have been in a measure overcome and relieved by a 
public system of education ; and Rome has been rebuilt, and 
from the position of a mean provincial town raised to a place 
among the great capitals of modern Europe. 

As to the progress made during the last thirty years in the 
development of the sentiment of nationality, a recent disaster 
furnishes a milestone by which to measure advance. In 1902 the 
great historic campanile which dominated St. Mark's in Venice 
fell in a pathetic heap of ruins. Every city of the peninsula, 
says a chronicler of the event, mourned just as if the tower had 
been its own, — "and then they opened a subscription." Had 
the catastrophe happened a single generation ago Venice would 
have had to restore her own bell tower ; but Italy is to-day a 
Nation, and the misfortune which befalls any Italian city afflicts 
all alike. 

Selections from the Sources. — Mazzini, Life and Writings. Should 
be read by all those whose souls, to use one of Mazzini's own phrases, need 
to be retempered in abhorrence of tyranny. Della Rocca, The Auto- 
biography of a Veteran, 1807-/893. A narrative of simplicity and charm. 
Robinson, headings in European History, vol. ii, pp. 572-580. 

Secondary Works. — Probyn, J. W., Italy : frovi the Fall of Napoleon I, 
in i8i£, to the Year i8go, and Stillman, W. J., The Union of Italy, 1815- 
1805. The first of these affords the best short account for young readers ; 
the second is the best for a careful study. Martinengo Cesaresco, The 
Liberation of Italy, 1815-1870; also by the same writer, Cavour. Thayer, 
W. R., The Dawn of Italian Independence, 2 vols. Mazade, Charles de, 
Life of Cavour. Dicey, E!, Victor Emmanuel. King, B., Mazzini. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The little republic of San Marino. 
2. Joseph Mazzini. 3. Count Cavour. 4. The Quirinal and the Vatican. 



CHAPTER LXXIII 
THE MAKING OF THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 

1004. Formation of the German Confederation (18 15). — The 
creation of the new German Empire is the most important 
matter in the political history of Europe since Waterloo. This 
story, so far as it will be narrated in the present chapter, begins 
with the Congress of Vienna. That body reorganized Germany 
as a Confederation, with the Emperor of Austria as President 
of the league. The union consisted of the Austrian Empire and 
the four kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Wiirtemberg, 
besides various principalities and free cities, — in all, thirty-nine 
states. A Diet formed of delegates from the several states was to 
settle all questions of dispute arising between members of the Con- 
federation, and to determine matters of general concern. The 
articles of union, in a spirit of concession to the growing sentiment 
of the times, provided that every state should establish a repre- 
sentative form of government. 

1005. Defects and Weaknesses of the Confederation. — The ties 
uniting the various states of this Confederation could hardly have 
been more lax. In this respect the league resembled that first 
formed by the American states under the Articles of Confedera- 
tion. One chief defect of its constitution was that, as in the case 
of the American Federation, there existed no effective machinery 
for carrying out the acts of the Federal Diet. These amounted 
practically to nothing more than recommendations to the rulers 
of the several states, who paid no heed whatsoever to them unless 
they chanced to be in line with their own policies or inclinations. 

But what contributed more than all else to render the federal 
scheme wholly unworkable was the presence in the league of two 
powerful and mutually jealous states, Austria and Prussia, neither 
of which was willing that the other should have predominance in 

709 



7 10 MAKING OF THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 

the affairs of the Confederation. Of these two rival states Prussia, 
though at first she yielded nominal precedence to Austria, which 
had a great past and enjoyed a vast prestige at the European courts, 
was in reality the stronger and the more promising state. Her 
strength lay particularly in the essentially German character of her 
population. Austria was inherently weak because of the mixed 
non-German character of most of the territories that had been 
gradually united under the rule of the Hapsburgs. The greater 
part of their lands lay outside of the German Confederation and 
contained nearly twenty-five million Slavs, Magyars, Italians, and 
other non-German subjects. 

This difference in the character of the populations of Prussia 
and the Austrian Empire foreshadowed their divergent destinies, 
— foreshadowed that Austria should lose and that Prussia should 
gain the leadership in German affairs. 

1006. The Dual Movement towards Freedom and Union. — For a 
half century after the Congress of Vienna the history of Germany 
is the history of a dual movement, or perhaps it would be better 
to say two movements, one democratic and the other national in 
character. The aim of the first movement was the establishment 
of representative government in the different states of the Con- 
federation; the aim of the second was German unity. These 
movements were essentially the same as those which we have seen 
creating in the Italian peninsula a free and united Italy. They 
were to have the same issue here in Germany, — the creation of 
a free and united German fatherland. 

1007. The Revolutions of 1830 : Some Gains for Constitutional 
Government. — There were a few liberal-minded princes among 
the German rulers; but in general the faces of these princes were 
turned towards the past. They opposed all changes that should 
give the people any part in the government, and clung to the old 
order of things. We have seen what were the consequences of 
the reactionary policy of the Bourbons in France and of the des- 
pots in Italy. Events ran exactly the same course in Germany. 
When the news of the February Revolution in Paris spread beyond 
the Rhine, a sympathetic thrill shot through Germany, and in 



FORMATION OF THE CUSTOMS UNION 711 

places the Liberal party made threatening demonstrations against 
their reactionary rulers. In several of the minor states constitu- 
tions were granted. Thus a little was gained for free political 
institutions, though after the flutter of the revolutionary years the 
princes again took up their reactionary policy, and under the influ- 
ence of Metternich did all in their power to check the popular 
movement and to keep governmental matters out of the hands 
of the people. In some instances the constitutions already granted 
were annulled or their articles were disregarded. 

1008. Formation of the Customs Union ; First Step towards 
German Unity (1828-1836). — It was just at this revolutionary 
epoch that the first step was taken in the formation of a real 
German nation through the creation of what is known as the 
Customs Union. This was a sort of commercial treaty binding 
those states that became parties to it — by the year 1836 almost 
all the states of the Confederation save Austria had become mem- 
bers of the league — to adopt among themselves the policy of 
free trade ; that is, there were to be no duties levied on goods 
passing from one state of the Union to another belonging to it. 

The greatest good resulting from the Union was that it taught 
the people to. think of a more perfect national union. And as 
Prussia was the promoter of the trade confederation, it accus- 
tomed the smaller states to look to her as their head and chief. 

1009. The Uprisings of 1848; Further Gains for Constitutional 
Government. — In 1848 news flew across the Rhine of the upris- 
ing in France against the reactionary government of Louis Philippe. 
The intelligence kindled a flame of excitement throughout Ger- 
many. The Liberals everywhere arose and demanded consti- 
tutional government. Especially in Austria did affairs assume 
a most threatening aspect. 1 Metternich was obliged to flee the 
country. The Emperor Ferdinand I abdicated in favor of his 
nephew Francis Joseph, who granted the people a constitution. 2 

1 The most serious trouble was in Hungary. Led by the distinguished statesman 
and orator Louis Kossuth, the Hungarians rose in revolt and declared their independ- 
ence of the Austrian crown (April 14, 1849). They made a noble fight for freedom, 
but were overpowered by the united Austrian and Russian armies. 

2 This Austrian constitution was withdrawn in 185 1. 



712 MAKING OF THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 



At the Prussian capital Berlin there was serious street righting 
between the people and the soldiers, and the excitement was not 
quieted until the king Frederick William IV assured the people 
that their demands for constitutional government should be 
granted. In fulfillment of this promise the king granted a con- 
stitution and took an oath to rule in accord with its provisions 
(Feb. 6, 1850). Prussia thus joined the ranks of constitutional 

states. This state 
was now to play in 
the unification of 
Germany a part like 
that played by Sar- 
dinia in the unifi- 
cation of Italy. 
Henceforth Prussian 
history is German 
history. 

1 010. Bismarck, 
the Unifier of Ger- 
many. — In the 
year 1861 Frederick 
William IV of Prus- 
sia died, and his 
brother, already an 
old man of sixty- 
three, yet destined 
to be for almost a 
generation the cen- 
tral figure in the movement for German unity, came to the Prussian 
throne as William I. He soon called to his side Otto von Bis- 
marck as Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Bismarck was 
one of Germany's greatest sons, — the greatest since Frederick the 
Great or Luther. He was a man of titanic mold in body and 
intellect, of imperious will and iron resolution. He was the Ger- 
man Cromwell. His appearance at the head of the Prussian gov- 
ernment marks an epoch in history. 




Fig. 158. — Prince Bismarck 
(After a painting by Franz von Lenbacfi) 



THE SEVEN WEEKS' WAR 713 

Bismarck saw clearly enough how the vexed question between 
Austria and Prussia was to be settled, — "by blood and iron." 
Austria's power and influence must be destroyed and she herself 
forcibly expelled from the Germanic body before the German 
states could be remolded into a real national union. 

1 01 1. The Seven Weeks' War between Austria and Prussia 
(1866). — The inevitable war which was to decide whether 
Austria or Prussia should be leader in German affairs came on 
apace. Early in 1866 the war opened. 3 The occasion of it was 
a dispute in regard to some petty Danish provinces (Schleswig 
and Holstein) . Almost all of the lesser states grouped themselves 
about Austria. Prussia, however, found a ready ally in Italy. On 
the 3d of July, 1866, was fought the great battle of Sadowa, or 
Koniggratz, in Bohemia. This was one of the decisive battles of 
history. It was Austria's Waterloo. The Prussians pushing on 
towards Vienna, the Emperor Francis Joseph was constrained to 
sue for peace, and on the 23d of August the Treaty of Prague 
was signed. 

The long debate between Austria and Prussia was over. By 
the terms of the treaty Austria consented to the dissolution of 
the old German Confederation and agreed to allow Prussia to 
reorganize the German states as she might wish. At the same 
time she surrendered Venetia to the Italian kingdom. The hin- 
drances she had so long placed in the way both of German and 
of Italian unity were now finally removed. 

1012. Establishment of the North German Confederation (1867). 
— Now quickly followed the reorganization under the presidency 
of Prussia of the German states north of the Main into what was 
called the North German Confederation. There were twenty-one 
states in all, reckoning the three free cities of Hamburg, Bremen, 
and Lubeck. A constitution was adopted which provided that all 
common concerns should be committed to a Federal Parliament, 
or Diet. The Prussian king was to be the hereditary executive of 
the Confederation and the commander in chief of all the military 
forces of the several states. 

3 The head of the Prussian army was the great Von Moltke. 



714 MAKING OF THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 

Thus was a long step taken towards German unity. But there 
still remained much to be desired. The states to the south of 
the Main — Baden, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Hesse-Darmstadt 
— were yet wanting to complete the unification of the Fatherland. 

A chief obstacle which had prevented the South German states 
from being brought into the new union was French jealousy. The 
Emperor Napoleon had insisted that the river Main should form 
the southern boundary of the Confederation of the North. He 
had thought that the South German states would form a union 
among themselves and look to him as their champion against 
Prussian aggression. Thus he hoped to be able to maintain the 
traditional position of France as arbiter of German affairs. 

10 13. The Franco-Prussian "War (1870-187 1). — The Austro- 
Prussian War had laid the basis of a Franco-Prussian War. It 
has just been seen how German unity had come short of com- 
plete accomplishment partly through the intermeddling of the 
Emperor Napoleon. But it was intolerable to German patriots, 
now that the sentiment of German nationality was growing strong, 
that France should be allowed to dictate to Germans respecting 
their internal affairs, and should stand between them and their 
national destiny. On the other hand, it seemed intolerable to the 
French that a strong German Empire should be allowed to arise 
right on the frontier of France, and that by this new upstart 
power France should be shouldered from her historic position 
as arbiter of Europe. All her old jealous hatred of the House 
of Hapsburg was now transferred to the rising House of Hohen- 
zollern. France awaited merely a pretext for attacking her new 
rival and preventing by force the consummation of German unity 
under Prussian headship. 

She had not long to wait. In 1869 the throne of Spain became 
vacant. It was offered to Leopold, a member of the Hohenzollern 
family. The Emperor Napoleon III affected to see in this a 
scheme on the part of the House of Hohenzollern to unite the 
interests of Prussia and Spain, just as Austria and Spain were 
united under the princes of the House of Hapsburg. Even after 
Leopold, to avoid displeasing France, had declined the proffered 



PROCLAMATION OF THE NEW EMPIRE 715 

crown, the Emperor demanded of King William assurance that no 
member of the House of Hohenzollern should ever with his con- 
sent become a candidate for the Spanish throne. 

This unreasonable demand was made of King William by the 
French ambassador Benedetti at the little watering place of Ems. 
The king courteously refused the demand and then sent a tele- 
gram to Bismarck informing him of what had occurred, at the 
same time giving him permission to make such use of it as he 
saw fit. Bismarck edited the telegram in such a way as to convey 
the impression that the French ambassador had been brusquely 
dismissed by King William, and then gave it out for publication. 
The French people were wild with rage. War was now inevitable. 

The important thing to be noted here is the enthusiasm that 
the war awakened not only throughout the states of the North 
German Confederation but among the states of the South as well, 
which placed their armies at the disposal of King William. The 
cause was looked upon as a national one, and a patriotic fervor 
stirred the hearts of all Germans alike. 

1 014. The Proclamation of the New German Empire (187 1). — 
The astonishing successes of the German armies on French soil 
(sec. 969) created among Germans everywhere such patriotic 
pride in the Fatherland that all the obstacles which had hitherto 
prevented anything more than a partial union of the members of 
the Germanic body were now swept out of the way by an irre- 
sistible tide of national sentiment. While the siege of Paris was 
progressing, commissioners were sent by the southern states to 
Versailles, the headquarters of King William, to" represent to him 
that they were ready and anxious to enter the North German 
Union. Thus in rapid succession Baden, Hesse, Wiirtemberg, and 
Bavaria were received into the Confederation, the name of which 
was now changed to that of the German Confederation. 

Scarcely was this accomplished when, upon the suggestion of 
the king of Bavaria, — who had been coached by Bismarck, — 
King William, who now bore the title of President of the Con- 
federation, was given the title of German Emperor, which honor 
was to be hereditary in his family. On the 18th of January, 187 1, 



716 MAKING OF THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 

within the Palace of Versailles, — the siege of Paris being still in 
progress, — amidst indescribable enthusiasm the imperial dignity 
was formally conferred upon King William, and Germany became 
a constitutional Empire. 4 

Thus amidst the throes of war the free German nation was 
born. The German people, after long centuries of division and 
servitude, had at last found freedom and unity. 5 




Fig. 159. — Proclamation of King William as Emperor of 
Germany at Versailles, January, 1871. (After a painting 
by Anton von Werner, Prussian court painter) 



1015. Later Events. — For nearly twenty years after the close 
of the Franco-Prussian War the policy of the new Empire was 

4 The new German Empire constitutes a federal state belonging to the same class 
of political organizations as the United States, Switzerland, Canada, and the newly 
formed Australian Commonwealth. Aside from the monarchical hereditary character 
of the federal executive and of the executive of each of the various principalities, 
it differs from our Union in there being no sort of equality in size between the states 
constituting the Empire, Prussia exceeding in population all the other states of the 
union taken together. (According to the census of 1900 the population of Prussia 
was 34,472,509; that of all the other states, including Alsace-Lorraine, was 21,894,- 
669.) Again, it differs from our federal system by leaving to the different states 
in large measure the carrying out of the federal laws. 

5 There is, however, something lacking from the union. There are nine million 
persons of German blood in the Austrian Empire. Whether these Germans shall ever 
come to form part of the German nation remains for the future to determine. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AFTER 1866 717 

directed by Bismarck as the first Imperial Chancellor. In his 
foreign policy Bismarck's greatest achievement was the formation 
of what is known as the Triple Alliance (JDreibund) between the 
German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Italy (1882). The chief 
objects of the Triple Alliance were to curb Russia's ambition 
in the Balkans and to hold France back from a war of revenge 
against Germany. Without doubt this league has been one of the 
most potent factors making for the peace of Europe during the 
last two decades and more. 

In 1 888 Emperor William I died at the venerable age of ninety-one. 
His death moved profoundly the German nation. His reign had cov- 
ered great years in German story, and he had gone with his people 
through many of the most momentous passages in their history. 

William I was followed by his son Frederick, who at the time 
of his accession was suffering from a fatal malady. He died after 
a short reign of three months, and his son came to the throne as 
Emperor William II (1888). 

It was generally thought that the young sovereign would be com- 
pletely under the influence of Bismarck. But soon the Emperor 
disclosed a very imperious will of his own. His relations with 
Bismarck became strained and the aged Chancellor was brusquely 
dismissed (March 18, 1890). 

The young Emperor's rule since then has been a very personal 
one. He would have made an ideal divine-right king in those 
halcyon days for autocratic rulers when there were no represent- 
ative assemblies. 

The remarkable growth of the party known as the Social Demo- 
crats, who advocate an extreme programme of social and industrial 
reform, is one of the most noteworthy facts connected with the 
domestic history of the Empire. 

1 016. Austria-Hungary after 1866. — The disaster of Sadowa 
did for Austria what the disaster of Jena did for Prussia (sec. 
958), — it brought about its political and social regeneration. 
Chastened by the bitter humiliation and realizing that the main- 
tenance of the old traditional system of absolute government was 
henceforth impossible, the Emperor Francis Joseph was now ready 



718 MAKING OF THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 

to make concessions to the national aspirations of the Magyars, 
and to yield to the growing demands of his subjects for liberal 
reforms and constitutional government. 

The first step and the most important one in the process of 
reorganization was the recognition by the Austrian court of the 
claims of the Magyars to the right of equality in the monarchy 
with the hitherto dominant German race. By an agreement- 
known as the Ausgleich, or Compromise, the relations of Austria 
and Hungary in the reconstituted state were defined and regu- 
lated. It provided for the division of the old empire into two. 
parts, now designated as the Austrian Empire and the Hungarian 
Kingdom. 6 Each state was to have its own parliament, the one 
sitting at Vienna and the other at Budapest, and each was to have 
complete control of its own internal affairs. 

The common interests of the two states — those embracing for- 
eign affairs, the army, and finances — were to be regulated by a 
third peculiar parliament, the so-called Delegations, composed 
of sixty delegates from each of the other two parliaments. The 
hereditary head of the Austrian state was to be also the constitu- 
tional king of Hungary. This compact was duly ratified by the 
parliaments of Hungary and Austria, and the long struggle between 
the Magyars and the House of Hapsburg was — for a time — at 
an end. The Hungarian constitution was restored, and the same 
year (1867) the western half of the monarchy was also given a 
liberal constitution, and Austria-Hungary now definitely entered 
the ranks of constitutional states. 

The Compromise, it will be noted, made no recognition what- 
soever of the historic rights and liberties of the other races or 
nationalities of the monarchy, of which there are many. In the 
Austrian Parliament the oath is administered to the members in 
eight different languages. 

Now in the eastern half of the monarchy the Magyars, who 
form only a minority of the population of the Hungarian 
kingdom, 7 are holding practically all the non-Magyar races of the 

6 The official designation of the dual state is the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. 
1 The census of 1900 gives the total number of inhabitants of Hungary as 19,254,- 
559, of whom only 7,426,730 are returned as being of Hungarian race. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 719 

kingdom in just such political serfdom as they themselves were 
subjected to before the events of 1866-1867. 

It is the same in the other half of the monarchy. There a Ger- 
man minority 8 is holding the Czechs in Bohemia and the Poles 
in Galicia in a state of subjection similar to that in which the 
Magyars are holding the non- Magyar races of Hungary. 

Now these dependent nationalities claim that they have as good 
a right to self-government as have either the Germans or the 
Magyars. The relations of Ireland to England, and the resulting 
agitation on the part of the Irish people for Home Rule, will con- 
vey some idea of the situation of things in the dual monarchy, 
and of the turbulence created in the state by the struggles for 
autonomy of these subject races. In short, the Austro-Hungarian 
Monarchy has three or four Irish problems. 

At the present time (1906) the strongest bond uniting the differ- 
ent races of the monarchy is the personal popularity of the reign- 
ing sovereign. The Emperor Francis Joseph has endeared himself 
in a remarkable degree to his people, and so long as he lives his 
personal ascendancy, in spite of the present strained relations 
between him and his Magyar subjects, will doubtless insure the 
integrity of the monarchy. 

Selections from the Sources. — Translations and Reprints, vol. i, No. 3, 
for " The Act of Confederation •' and other documents. Bis?narck, the Man 
and the Statesman (Reminiscences of Otto Prince von Bismarck, written 
and dictated by himself after his retirement from office ; ed. by A. J. Butler). 
Robinson, Readings i?t European History, vol. ii, pp. 543-558, 564-572, 
and 580-596. 

Secondary Works. — Sybel, H. von, The Founding of the German 
Empire, 7 vols. Andrews, C. M., The Historical Development of Modem 
Europe, vol. i, chaps, vi, ix, and x; and vol. ii, chaps, v and vi. Hender- 
son, E. F., A Short History of Germany, vol. ii, chaps, viii-x. Lowe, C, 
Prince Bismarck and The German Emperor, William II. Headlam, 
J. W., Bismarck and the Founding of the German Empire. Busch, M., Our 
Chancellor. Lowell, A. L., Governments and Parties in Continetital Europe, 
vol. i, chaps, v and vi ; and vol. ii, chap. vii. 

8 The total population of Austria according to the census of 1900 was 26,150,708 ; 
the number of Germans, 9,170,939. 



CHAPTER LXXIV 
RUSSIA SINCE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

1017. Preliminary Statement. — The story of Russia since the 
fall of Napoleon is crowded with matters of great moment and 
interest. We can, however, in the present chapter, speak very 
briefly of only three things, — her part in the dismemberment 
of the Ottoman Empire, the emancipation of her serfs, and the 
Liberal movement. In the next chapter we shall find place to say 
something of Russia in Asia. 

I. Russia's Wars against Turkey and her Allies. . 

1018. The Russo-Turkish War of 1828— 1829. — In the course 
of the nineteenth century Russia waged three wars against the 
Ottoman Porte, which resulted in the expulsion of the Turks from 
a large part of their conquests in Europe. But the jealousy of 
the other great powers of Europe prevented Russia from appro- 
priating the fruits of her victories, so that the outcome of her 
efforts was the establishment of a number of independent, or prac- 
tically independent, Christian principalities on the land recovered. 

The first of these wars began in 1828. In that year, taking 
advantage of the embarrassment of the Sultan through a stubborn 
insurrection in Greece, 1 Tsar Nicholas 2 declared war against the 
Ottoman Porte. The Russian troops crossed the Balkans with- 
out serious opposition, and were marching upon Constantinople 
when the Sultan sued for peace. The Treaty of Adrianople 
brought the war to a close (1829). 

1 This was the struggle known as the War of Greek Independence (1821-1S29). 
This war was a phase of the liberal and national movement which in the revolutionary 
year of 1821 agitated the Italian and Iberian peninsulas. Lord Byron devoted his 
life and fortune to the cause of Greek freedom. He died of fever at the siege of 
Missolonghi (1824). 

2 Tsars of the nineteenth century: Alexander I, 1801-1825 ; Nicholas I, 1825- 
1855; Alexander II, 1855-1881; Alexander III, 1881-1894; Nicholas II, 1894- 

720 



THE CRIMEAN WAR 72 I 

The Turkish provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia (now 
Rumania) were rendered virtually independent of the Sultan. 
All Greece south of Thessaly and Epirus was liberated, and along 
with most of the islands of the JEgean was formed into an inde- 
pendent kingdom under the joint guardianship of England, 
France, and Russia. Prince Otto of Bavaria accepted the crown, 
and became the first king of the little Hellenic state 3 (1832). 

1019. The Crimean War (185 3-1 85 6). — A celebrated parable 
employed by the Tsar Nicholas in conversation with the English 
minister at St. Petersburg throws a good deal of light upon the 
circumstances that led to the Crimean War. "We have on our 
hands," said the Tsar, " a sick man — a very sick man ; it would be 
a great misfortune if he should give us the slip some of these days, 
especially if it happened before all the necessary arrangements 
were made." Nicholas thereupon proposed that England and 
Russia should divide the estate of the " sick man," by which 
phrase Turkey of course was meant. England was to be allowed 
to take Egypt and Crete, while the Turkish provinces in Europe 
were to be taken under the protection of the Tsar, which meant 
of course the complete absorption, in due time, of all South- 
eastern Europe into the Russian Empire. 

A pretense for hastening the dissolution of the sick man was not 
long wanting. A quarrel between the Greek and Latin Christians 
at Jerusalem was made the ground by Nicholas for demanding of 
the Sultan the recognition of a Russian protectorate over all Greek 
Christians in the Ottoman dominions. The demand was rejected, 
and Nicholas prepared for war. The Sultan appealed to the 
Western powers for help. England and France responded to the 
appeal, and later Sardinia joined her forces to theirs (sec. 996). 

3 In 1864 the kingdom was enlarged through the cession to it of the Ionian Islands 
by England, in whose hands they had been since the Congress of Vienna. In 1881 
it received Thessaly and a part of Epirus by cession from Turkey. Under the 
regime of freedom substantial progress has been made. The population of the 
little kingdom rose from 612,000 in 1832 to 2,433,806 in 1896. Industry, trade, and 
commerce have revived. The Isthmus of Corinth has been pierced by a canal. Rail- 
roads have been built. Athens has taken on the appearance of a modern capital. Its 
university has an attendance of between two and three thousand students, — a good 
omen for the future. 



722 RUSSIA SINCE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

The main interest of the struggle centered about Sevastopol, 
in the Crimea, Russia's great naval and military station in the 
Euxine. The siege of this place, which lasted eleven months, was 
one of the most memorable in history. The Russian general 
Todleben earned a great reputation through his masterly defense 
of the works. The English " Light Brigade " won immortality in 
its memorable charge at Balaklava. The French troops, through 
their dashing bravery, brought great fame to the Emperor who 
had sent them to gather glory for his throne. 

The Russians were at length forced to evacuate their stronghold. 
The war was now soon brought to an end by the Treaty of Paris 
(March 30, 1856). The keynote of this treaty was the mainte- 
nance in its integrity of the Ottoman Empire as a barrier against 
Muscovite encroachments. Russia was given back Sevastopol, 
but was required to abandon all claims to a protectorate over any 
of the subjects of the Porte, and to agree not to raise any more 
fortresses on the Euxine nor keep upon that sea any armed ships, 
save what might be needed for police service. 4 

1020. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and the Treaty of 
Berlin. — Anxiously as the Treaty of Paris had provided for the 
permanent settlement of the Eastern Question, barely twenty-two 
years had passed before it was again up before Europe. The Sultan 
could not or would not give his Christian subjects that protection 
which he had solemnly promised should be given. In 1876 there 
occurred in Bulgaria what are known as the " Bulgarian atrocities," 
— massacres of Christian men, women, and children more revolt- 
ing perhaps than any others of which history tells. 

Fierce indignation was kindled throughout Europe. The Rus- 
sian armies were soon in motion. Kars in Asia Minor and Plevna 
in European Turkey, the latter after a memorable siege, fell into 
the hands of the Russians, and the armies of the Tsar were once 
more in full march upon Constantinople, with the prospect of 
soon ending forever Turkish rule on European soil, when England 

4 Russia repudiated this article of the treaty during the Franco- Prussian War in 
1871. She has restored Sevastopol and its fortresses and is now maintaining a strong 
fleet of warships on the Black Sea. 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR 



723 



intervened, sent her fleet through the Dardanelles, and arrested 
the triumphant march of the Russians. 

The Treaty of Berlin (1878), whose articles were arranged by 
the great powers, adjusted once more the disorganized affairs of 
the Sublime Porte and bolstered up as well as was possible the 
" sick man." But he lost a good part of his estate, for even his 
friends had no longer any hope either of his recovery or of his 
reformation. Out of those provinces of his dominions in Europe 




Andrassy Bismarck Schuwaloff 

— The Congress of Berlin. (After a painting by 
Anton Von Werner, Prussian court painter) 



in which the Christian population was most numerous, there was 
created a group of wholly independent or half-independent states. 5 
The northern frontier of the Ottoman Empire in Europe was thus 
pushed back to the Balkans. Bosnia and Herzegovina were given 

5 The absolute independence of Rumania (the ancient provinces of Moldavia and 
Wallachia), Servia, and Montenegro was formally acknowledged ; Bulgaria, north 
of the Balkans, was to enjoy self-government, but was to pay tribute to the Porte ; 
Eastern Rumelia was to have a Christian governor, but was to remain under the 
dominion of the Sultan. In 1885 Eastern Rumelia united with Bulgaria. 



724 RUSSIA SINCE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

to Austria-Hungary to administer, but were not actually severed 
from the Ottoman Empire. 

The island of Cyprus, by a secret arrangement between the 
Ottoman Porte and the English government, was ceded to Eng- 
land " to be occupied and administered." In return England 
guaranteed the integrity of the Sultan's possessions in Asia. 

Thus as a 'result of the war Turkey was shorn of half her Euro- 
pean possessions. There were left in Europe under the direct 
authority of the Sultan barely five million subjects, of which 
number about one half are Christians. 6 

II. The Emancipation of the Serfs, and the Liberal 

Movement 

102 i. Emancipation of the Russian Serfs (1861). — The name 
of Tsar Alexander II (1855-1881) will live in history as the Eman- 
cipator of the Russian serfs. The Emancipation Code, which was 
promulgated in 1861, required the masters of the peasant serfs to 
give them a certain portion of the lands they had tilled, for which, 
however, they were to make some fixed return in labor or rent. 7 
The lands thus .acquired became the common property of the 
village, or Mir. All other serfs, such as house servants and opera- 
tives in factories, were to gain their freedom at the end of two 
years' additional service, during which time, however, they were 
to receive fair wages. 

As in the case of the emancipation of the slaves in our South- 
ern States, the emancipation of the Russian serfs has not met all 
the hopeful expectations of the friends of the reform. One cause 
of the unsatisfactory outcome of the measure is that the villagers 
did not get enough land, save in those districts where the earth 
is very rich, to enable them to support themselves by its tillage. 
Hence many of them live in wretched poverty. 

6 At the present writing (1906) these unredeemed lands, particularly the eastern 
portion of them popularly designated as Macedonia, are seething with revolt. 

7 The serfs on the crown lands, about 23,000,000 in number, had already been 
freed by special edicts (the first issued in July, 1858). The whole number of serfs 
liberated was about 46,000,000. 



THE LIBERAL MOVEMENT IN RUSSIA 725 

1022. The Liberal Movement in Russia. — Since 18 15 there has 
been a growing protest in Russia, now the last great stronghold 
of autocracy in the world, against the despotic government of the 
Tsar. This movement is nothing else than the outworking in 
Russia of the ideas of the French Revolution. The fundamental 
demand of the Liberals is that the people shall have a share in 
the rule of the empire. 

The Russo-Japanese War of 1 904-1 905 gave a great impulse to 
this Liberal movement by utterly discrediting the corrupt, unscru- 
pulous, and incapable government of the autocracy. The people, 
forced to make unheard-of sacrifices of life and treasure to carry 
on a disastrous war in which they had neither voice nor interest, 
arose in virtual insurrection. The empire became filled from end 
to end with unrest and disorder, with riots and local attempts vio- 
lently to overthrow the government. The situation was strangely 
like that of 1 789 in France. A Reign of Terror seemed imminent. 
The Tsar was finally constrained to promise the people the con- 
vening early in 1906 of a National Parliament. 8 

The meeting of this body, unless reaction should prevail over 
reform, will signalize an epoch in universal history. It will mark 
at once the political emancipation of the Russian people, and the 
enhancement of the spiritual forces of civilization by the addition 
to them of the freely unfolding energies of a richly endowed race. 

Secondary Works. — Rambaud, A., History of Russia, vol. iii. Leroy- 
Beaulieu, A., The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians, 3 vols. Mor- 
fill, W. R., The Story of Russia, chaps, x and xi. Wallace, D. M., 
Russia (new ed., 1905) ; has chapters which give an excellent account 
of the Mir and the effects upon the serfs of the emancipation measure. 
Stepniak (pseudonym), The Russian Peasantry. Noble, E., The Russian 
Revolt and Russia and the Russians. Milyoukov, P., Russia and its Crisis ; 
for the special student. For works on Russia in Asia, see next chapter. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. The Russian Mir. 2. Tsar Alexander II 
and the emancipation of the Russian serfs. 3. The bureaucracy. 

8 This first Russian Parliament is to consist of an upper house, to be known as the 
Council of the Empire, and a lower chamber, named the Douma, or National Assembly. 



CHAPTER LXXV 
EUROPEAN EXPANSION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

I. Causes and General Phases of the Expansion 
Movement 

1023. The Fate of the Earlier Colonial Empires; Decline and 
Revival of Interest in Colonies. — The history we have narrated 
has revealed the fate of all the colonial empires founded by the 
various European nations during the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries. The magnificent Portuguese Empire soon became the 
spoil of the Dutch and the English ; France lost her colonial 
possessions to England ; a great part of the colonies of the Dutch 
also finally fell into English hands ; before the end of the eight- 
eenth century England lost through revolution her thirteen col- 
onies in North America ; and in the early part of the nineteenth 
century Spain in like manner lost all her dependencies on the 
mainland of the New World. 

After these discouraging experiences with their colonies the 
governments of Europe lost interest for a while in possessions 
beyond the seas. Statesmen came to hold the doctrine that col- 
onies are " like fruit, which as soon as ripe falls from the tree." 
The English minister Disraeli, in referring to England's colonial 
possessions, once used these words : " Those wretched colonies 
are millstones about our neck." 

Before the close of the nineteenth century, however, fostered 
by different causes, there sprang up a most extraordinary revival 
of interest in colonies and dependencies, and the leading Euro- 
pean states began to compete eagerly for over-the-sea possessions. 
During the last fifteen or twenty years of the nineteenth century 
almost all the old colonizing peoples of Europe were exerting 
themselves to the utmost to build up new empires to take the 
place of those they had lost, while other nations that had never 

726 



STANLEY'S DISCOVERIES 727 

possessed colonies now also entered into competition with those 
earlier in the field. 

1024. Stanley's Discoveries open up the "Dark Continent."— 
By this time, however, almost all the lands outside of Europe 
suited to European settlement were closed against true colonizing 
enterprises by having been appropriated by England, or through 
their being in the control of independent states that had grown 
out of colonies planted by immigrants of European speech and 
blood. 

Africa, however, was still left. For a century intrepid explorers 
had been endeavoring to uncover the mysteries of that continent. 
Among these was the missionary-explorer David Livingstone. 
He died in 1873. His mantle fell upon Henry M. Stanley, who 
a short time after the death of Livingstone set out on an adven- 
turous expedition across Africa 1 (1874-1877), in which journey 
he discovered the course of the Congo and learned the nature 
of its great basin. Not since the age of Columbus had there 
been any discoveries in the domain of geography comparable 
in importance to these of Stanley. Stanley gave the world an 
account of his journey in a book bearing the title Through the 
Dark Continent. The appearance of this work marks an epoch 
in the history of Africa. It inspired innumerable enterprises, 
political, commercial, and philanthropic, whose aim was to de- 
velop the natural resources of the continent and to open it up 
to civilization. 

1025. The Partition of Africa. — The discoveries of Stanley and 
the founding of the Congo Free State 2 were the signal for a scram- 
ble among the powers of Europe for African territory. England, 
France, and Germany were the strongest competitors and they 
got the largest shares. In the short space of fifteen years Africa 
became a dependency of Europe. The only native states retaining 

1 Stanley had made an earlier expedition (1871-1872) in search of Livingstone. 

2 The Congo Free State, founded by the International African Association, has 
an estimated population of thirty millions. King Leopold of Belgium is the head 
of the state, whose independence and sovereignty have been recognized by the United 
States and most of the governments of Europe. The state is not nominally a Belgian 
colony ; it is (at the present time, 1906) merely an appanage of the Belgian crown. 



728 EUROPEAN EXPANSION 

their independence by the end of the nineteenth century were 
Abyssinia, Morocco, 3 and the negro republic of, Liberia. 

This transference of the control of the affairs of Africa from 
the hands of its native inhabitants or those of Asiatic Moham- 
medan intruders to the hands of Europeans is without question 
the most momentous transaction in the history of that continent, 
and one which must shape its future destiny. In the following 
sections of this chapter, in which we propose briefly to rehearse 
the part which each of the leading European states has taken in 
the general expansion movement, we shall speak of the part which 
each played in the partition of Africa and tell what each secured. 

II. The Expansion of England 

1026. England in America; the Dominion of Canada. — The 

separation of the thirteen American colonies from England in 
1776 (sec. 877) seemed to give a fatal blow to English hopes 
of establishing a great colonial empire in America. But half of 
North America still remained in English hands. Gradually the 
attractions of British North America as a dwelling place for set- 
tlers of European stock became known. Immigration, mostly from 
the British Isles, increased in volume, so that the population rose 
from about a quarter of a million at the opening of the nineteenth 
century to over five millions at its close. One of the most impor- 
tant matters in the political history of Canada since the country 
passed under English rule is the granting of responsible govern- 
ment to the provinces in 1841. 4 This concession of complete 
self-government was followed, in 1867, by the union of Upper 
and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick in a fed- 
eral state under the name of the Dominion of Canada. Later 
the confederation was joined by British Columbia, Prince Edward 



3 France desires, and thinks she should be accorded the right, to constitute herself 
Morocco's warden. At the present writing (March, 1906), this matter is the subject 
of a serious conference between France and Germany. 

4 The treaty-making power and matters of peace and war are still in the hands of 
the English government. 




itude 20 West from 10 Gr 



Cape Toi 

C.of Good 



ENGLAND IN AUSTRALASIA 729 

Island, and other provinces. Newfoundland has steadily refused 
to join the union. 

The political union of the provinces made possible the success- 
ful accomplishment of one of the great engineering undertakings 
of our age. This was the construction of a transcontinental rail- 
road from Montreal to Vancouver. This road has done for the 
confirming of the federal union and for the industrial develop- 
ment of the Dominion what the building of similar transconti- 
nental lines has done for the United States. 

By reason of its vast geographical extent, — its area is more 
than thirty-five times as great as that of the British Isles, — its 
inexhaustible mineral deposits, its unrivaled fisheries, its limitless 
forests, grazing lands, and wheat fields, its bracing climate, and 
above all its free institutions, the Dominion of Canada seems 
marked out to be one of the great future homes of the Anglo- 
Saxon race. What the United States now is, the Dominion seems 
destined at a time not very remote to become. 

1027. England in Australasia; 5 the Proclamation of the Com- 
monwealth of Australia (1901). — About the time that England 
lost her American colonies the celebrated navigator Captain Cook 
reached and explored the shores of New Zealand and Australia 
(1 769-1771). Disregarding the claims of earlier visitors to these 
lands, he took possession of the islands for the British crown. 

The best use which England could at first think to put the 
new lands was to make them a place of exile for criminals. The 
first shipload of convicts was landed at Botany Bay in Australia 
in 1788. But the agricultural riches of the new lands, their 
adaptability to stock raising, and the healthfulness of the climate 
soon drew to them a stream of English immigrants. In 185 1 
came the announcement of the discovery of fabulously rich de- 
posits of gold, and then set in a tide of immigration such as 

5 Australasia, meaning " south land of Asia," is the name under which Australia and 
New Zealand are comprehended. Here, as in South Africa, in Canada, and in India, 
England appeared late on the ground. The Spaniards and the Dutch had both pre- 
ceded her. The presence of the Dutch is witnessed by the names New Holland (the 
earlier name of Australia) and New Zealand attaching to the greater islands. 



730 EUROPEAN EXPANSION 

the world has seldom seen. Before the close of the century five 
flourishing colonies (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, 
South Australia, and West Australia), with an aggregate popula- 
tion, including that of the neighboring island of Tasmania, of 
almost four millions, had grown up along the fertile rim of the 
Australian continent and had developed free institutions similar 
to those of the mother country. 

The great political event in the history of these colonies was 
their consolidation, just at the opening of the twentieth century, 
into the Commonwealth of Australia, a federal union like our 
own. 

The vast possibilities of the future of this new Anglo-Saxon 
commonwealth in the South Pacific has impressed in an unwonted 
way the imagination of the world. It is possible that in the 
coming periods of history this new Britain will hold some such 
place in the Pacific as the mother land now holds in the Atlantic. 

1028. England in Asia. — We have noted the founding of the 
British Empire in India (sec. 876). Throughout the nineteenth 
century England steadily advanced the frontiers of her dominions 
here and consolidated her power until by the close of the century 
she had brought either under her direct rule or under her suze- 
rainty almost three hundred millions of Asiatics, 6 — the largest 
number of human beings, so far as history knows, ever united 
under a single scepter. 

We must here note how England's occupation of India and 
her large interests in the trade of Southern and Eastern Asia in- 
volved her during the century in several wars and shaped in great 
measure her foreign policies. One of the earliest of these wars 
was that known as the Afghan War of 1838-1842, into which she 
was drawn through her jealousy of Russia. 7 

6 By the census of 1901 the population of the British Indian Empire (this includes 
the feudatory states) was 294,461,056). 

7 England's endeavor here was to maintain Afghanistan as a buffer state between 
her Indian possessions and the expanding Russian Empire. The war was marked by 
a great tragedy, — the virtual annihilation in the wild mountain passes leading from 
India to Afghanistan of an Anglo-Indian army of 16,000 men. There was a second 
Afghan War in 1S70-1880. 



ENGLAND IN ASIA 731 

At the same time England became involved in the so-called 
Opium War with China 8 (1839-1842). As a result of this war 
England obtained by cession from China the island and port of 
Hongkong, which she has made one of the most important 
commercial and naval stations of the world. 

Scarcely was the Opium War ended before England was 
involved in a gigantic struggle with Russia, — the Crimean War, 
already spoken of in connection with Russian history (sec. 10 19). 
From our present standpoint we can better understand why 
England threw herself into the conflict on the side of Turkey. 
She fought to prevent Russia from getting through the Bosporus 
to the Mediterranean and thus endangering her route to her 
Eastern possessions. 

The echoes of the Crimean War had barely died away before 
England was startled by the most alarming intelligence from the 
country for the secure possession of which English soldiers had 
borne their part in the fierce struggle before Sevastopol. In 1857 
there broke out in the armies of the East India Company what 
is known as the Sepoy Mutiny. Fortunately many of the native 
regiments stood firm in their allegiance to England, and with 
their aid the revolt was speedily crushed. As a consequence of 
the mutiny the government of India was by act of Parliament 
taken out of the hands of the East India Company and vested in 
the English crown. 

There are without question offsets to the indisputably good 
results of English rule in India ; nevertheless it is one of the 
most important facts of modern history, and one of special 
import as bearing on our present study, that nearly three hun- 
dred millions of the population of Asia should thus have passed, 
whether for better or for worse, under the rule and wardship of 
a European nation. 

8 The opium traffic between India and China had grown into gigantic proportions 
and had become a source of wealth to the British merchants and of revenue to the 
Indian government. The Chinese government, however, awake to the evils of the 
growing use of the narcotic, resisted the importation of the drug. This was the cause 
of the war. The Chinese government was compelled to acquiesce in the continuance 
of the nefarious traffic. 



732 EUROPEAN EXPANSION 

1029. England in South Africa; Boer and Briton. — England 
has played a great part in the partition of Africa, and as usual 
has got the lion's share of the spoils, not as to the size of her 
portion but as to its real value. Her first appearance upon the 
continent, both in Egypt and at the Cape, was brought about 
through her solicitude for her East India possessions and the 
security of her routes thither. Later she joined in the scramble 
of European powers for African territories for their own sake. 

The Dutch had preceded the English in South Africa. They 
began their settlement at the Cape about the middle of the sev- 
enteenth century, in the great days of Holland. During the French 
Revolution and again during Napoleon's ascendancy the English 
took the Dutch colony under their protection. After the down- 
fall of Napoleon in 18 14 the colony was ceded to England by 
the Netherlands. 9 

The Dutch settlers refused to become reconciled to the English 
rule. In 1836 a large number of these aggrieved colonists took 
the heroic resolve of abandoning their old homes and going out 
into the African wilderness in search of new ones. This migra- 
tion is known as "The Great Trek." 10 Beyond the Orange River 
some of the immigrants unyoked their oxen and set up homes, 
laying there the basis of the Orange Free State ; the more intrepid 
"trekked" still farther to the north, across the Vaal River, and 
established the republic of the Transvaal. 

Two generations passed, a period filled for the little republics, 
surrounded by hostile African tribes, with anxieties and fighting. 
Then there came a turning point in their history. In the year 
1 885 gold deposits of extraordinary richness were discovered in 
the Transvaal. Straightway there began a tremendous inrush of 
miners and adventurers from all parts of the globe. 

A great portion of these newcomers were English-speaking 
people. As aliens — Uitlanders, " outlanders," they were called 

9 After the loss of the Cape Settlement the island of Java was the most important 
colonial possession remaining to the Dutch. Gradually they got possession of the 
greater part of the large island of Sumatra. These two islands form the heart of the 
Dutch East Indies of to-day, which embrace a native population of about 36,000,000. 

10 Trek is Dutch for "migration " or "journey." 



ENGLAND IN SOUTH AFRICA 733 

— they were excluded from any share in the government, although 
they made up two thirds of the population of the little state and 
paid the greater part of the taxes. They demanded the fran- 
chise. The Boers, under the lead of the sturdy President of the 
Transvaal, Paul Kriiger, refused to accede to their demands, urging 
that this would mean practically the surrender of the independ- 
ence of the republic and its annexation to the British Empire. 

The controversy grew more and more bitter and soon ripened 
into war between England and the Transvaal (1899). The Orange 
Free State joined its little army to that of its sister state. 11 
After the maintenance of the struggle for over two years the last 
of the Boer bands surrendered to the English (1902). As the 
outcome of the war both of the republics were annexed to the 
British Empire under the names of the Transvaal Colony and 
Orange River Colony. 

These new acquisitions, taken in connection with Cape Colony, 
Natal, and the various protectorates and dependencies which 
England has established in West, East, and Central Africa, form 
a vast empire, a considerable portion of which is well suited 
to European settlement. 

A political ideal of English statesmen is the union of all the 
English and Anglo-Dutch colonies and states of South Africa into 
a great federation like the Canadian and Australian. This was a 
favorite project of the late South African statesman, Cecil Rhodes, 
one of the most masterful men of his generation. Such a federa- 
tion must be the ultimate destiny of these colonies ; and if only 
the present bitter antagonism between Boer and Briton dies away 
here, as the once like antagonism between French and Briton has 
died away in Canada, such a federal state could not fail of having 
a great future. 

Another important project of the English is the building of a 
Cape-to-Cairo railroad. The projected line has already (1906) been 
carried northward from Cape Town about two thousand miles, to 

11 The total European or white population of the two little republics that thus 
threw down the gage of battle to the most powerful empire of modern times was 
only a little over 300,000. 



734 EUROPEAN EXPANSION 

and beyond the celebrated Victoria Falls on the Zambesi ; while at 
the other end of the continent the road has been pushed up the 
Nile from Cairo to Khartum, a distance of over thirteen hundred 
miles (including a little over two hundred miles of river navigation 
above Assuan). This railway when completed, as it without doubt 
will be at no very remote date, will be a potent factor in the 
opening up of the Dark Continent to civilization. 

1030. England in Egypt. — In 1876 England and France estab- 
lished what was in effect a dual protectorate over Egypt in order 
to secure against loss their subjects who were holders of Egyptian 
bonds. 12 Six years later, in 1882, there broke out in the Egyptian 
army a mutiny against the authority of the Khedive. France 
declining to act with England in suppressing the disorder, Eng- 
land moved alone in the matter. The result of her intervention 
was the establishment of an English protectorate over the country. 

No part of the world has benefited more by European control 
than Egypt. When England assumed the administration of its 
affairs it was in every respect one of the most wretched of the 
lands under the rule, actual or nominal, of the Turkish Sultan. 
The country is now, according to the claims of eminent English 
authority, more prosperous than at any previous period of its 
history, not excepting the time of the rule of the Pharaohs. This 
high degree of prosperity has been secured mainly through Eng- 
land's having given Egypt the two things declared necessary to 
its prosperity, — " justice and water." 

The construction of the great irrigation or storage dam across 
the Nile at the First Cataract (at Assuan) is one of the greatest 
engineering achievements of modern times. The dam retains the 
surplus waters of the Nile in flood times and releases them grad- 
ually during the months of low water. This constant supply of 
water for irrigation purposes will, it is estimated, increase by a 
third the agricultural capabilities of Egypt. 



12 Egypt was at that time and still is nominally an hereditary principality under 
the suzerainty of the Ottoman Porte. Practically it was then an independent state 
and now is virtually a part of the British Empire ; for no one doubts that the present 
English protectorate will in time be converted into absolute dominion. 



FRANCE IN AFRICA 735 

III. The Expansion of France 

1031. France in Africa. — At the opening of the nineteenth 
century France possessed only fragments of a once promising 
colonial empire. When finally she began to look about her for 
over-the-sea territories to make good her losses in America and 
Asia, it was the North African shore which on account of prox- 
imity, climate, and products naturally attracted her attention. 
In ancient times this region was one of the richest grain- tribute- 
paying provinces of the Roman Empire. Its climate is favorable 
for Latin- European settlement. It is really geographically a part 
of Europe, " the true Africa beginning with the Sahara." 

France began the conquest of Algeria as early as 1830. The 
subjugation of the country was not effected without much hard 
fighting with the native tribes. In the year 1881, under the pre- 
text of defending her Algerian frontier against the raids of the 
mountain tribes of Tunis on the east, France established a pro- 
tectorate over that country. This act of hers deeply offended 
the Italians, who had had their eye upon this district, regarding 
it as belonging to them by virtue of its geographical position as 
well as its historical traditions. 13 

These North African territories form the most promising por- 
tion of France's new colonial empire. The more sanguine of her 
statesmen entertain hopes of ultimately creating here a new home 
for the French people, — a sort of New France. In any event it 
seems certain that all these shore lands, which in the seventh 
century were severed from Europe by the Arabian conquests, 
are now again permanently reunited to that continent and are 
henceforth to constitute virtually a part of the European world. 

13 Disappointed in not getting Tunis, the Italians sought to secure a foothold on 
the Red Sea coast. They seized here a district and organized it under the name of 
the Colony of Eritrea ; but they had hard luck almost from the first. The coast is 
hot and unhealthy and inland is the kingdom of Abyssinia. Over this the Italians 
attempted to establish a protectorate ; but unfortunately for them Abyssinia does not 
regard herself as one of the uncivilized or moribund states over which it is neces- 
sary for Europeans to extend their protection. King Menelik of that country inflicted 
upon the Italian army a most disastrous defeat (1896). Since then the Italians have 
done very little in the way of developing their African possessions. 



736 EUROPEAN EXPANSION 

Besides these lands in North Africa, France possesses a vast 
domain in the region of the Senegal and lays claim to all the 
Sahara lying between her colony of Senegal and Algeria. She also 
holds extensive territories just north of the Congo Free State, 
embracing part of Central Sudan. The island of Madagascar also 
forms a part of the French-African empire. 

1032. France in Asia. — In the year 1862 France secured a 
foothold near the mouth of the Cambodia River in Indo-China 
and has since then steadily enlarged her possessions, until now she 
holds in those quarters territories which exceed in extent the 
home land. A chief aim of the French in this region is to secure 
the trade of Southern China. To this end they are projecting 
the extension northward into China of the system of railways 
they have already constructed. 

With these ample African and Asiatic territories France feels 
in a measure consoled for her losses in the past, and dreams of a 
brilliant career as one of the great colonizing powers of Europe. 
France has, however, one great handicap as a colonizing state. 
She has not, what both England and Germany have, a rapidly in- 
creasing population at home. Nor have her citizens that restless, 
adventurous spirit of the Anglo-Saxons which has driven them as 
conquerors and settlers into the remotest parts of the earth and 
made England the mother of innumerable colonies and states. 

IV. The Expansion of Germany 

1033. German Emigrants Lost to Germany. — No country of 
Europe during the expansion movement we are tracing has sup- 
plied a greater number of emigrants for the settlement of trans- 
oceanic lands than Germany. But Germany has not until recently 
possessed under her own flag any over-the-sea territories, and con- 
sequently, although she has sent out vast swarms of emigrants, no 
true Greater Germany has grown up outside of Europe. 

Stimulated by the patriotic war of 1870— 187 1 against France, 
and the consolidation of the German Empire, German statesmen 
began to dream of making Germany a world power. To this end 



GERMANY IN AFRICA AND ASIA 737 

it was deemed necessary to secure for Germany colonies where the 
German emigrants might live under the German flag and, instead 
of contributing to the growth and prosperity of rival states, should 
remain Germans and constitute a part of the German nation. 

1034. Germany in Africa. — Consequently when the competition 
came for African territory Germany entered into the struggle with 
great zeal and got a fair share of the spoils. In 1 884 she declared 
a protectorate over a large region on the southwest coast of the 
continent just north of the Orange River, and thus lying partly 
in the temperate zone. This region she has opened up to civiliza- 
tion by the construction of a railroad over two hundred and thirty 
miles in length running from the west coast inland. 

At almost the same time she established two smaller protect- 
orates in the tropic belt farther to the north. On the East 
African coast she seized a great territory, twice as large as Ger- 
many itself, embracing a part of the celebrated Lake District. 
These upland regions are well adapted to European settlement 
and must in time be filled by people of European descent. 

1035. Germany in Asia. — The hopes of many German expan- 
sionists are centered in Western Asia rather than in Africa. 
Thousands of Germans have crowded into Asia Minor and Syria 
and have come to form in some districts an important element of 
the industrial and trading population. Certainly, if the present 
process of the Germanization of those regions continues, it is not 
at all unlikely that a large part of Western Asia will come eventu- 
ally into some such relation to Germany as Egypt now sustains 
to England. 

One of the most important projects of the Germans in these 
Asian regions is the extension of the Anatolian Railway, now under 
German control, from Eregli in Asia Minor over the Taurus 
Mountains, across the Mesopotamian plains, and down the Tigro- 
Euphrates valley to the head of the Persian Gulf. Such a line, 
besides providing a new and shorter route to India, — the route 
used by the ancient peoples, — would open up to civilization the 
wonderfully fertile regions which formed the heart of the early 
and populous empires of Assyria and Babylonia. The restoration 



738 EUROPEAN EXPANSION 

of these lands from their present artificial sterility would give back 
to mankind some of the choicest portions of their heritage, long 
given over to desolation and neglect. 14 

German expansion presses not only on the Turkish Empire 
but also upon the Chinese Empire. In 1897 Germany, on the 
pretext of protecting German missionaries in China, seized the 
port of Kiau-chau and forced its practical cession from the Chi- 
nese government. The German government aims to make this 
colony a true German settlement and the outgoing point of Ger- 
man power and influence in the Far East. 

V. The Expansion of Russia 

1036. Russian Expansion in Asia. — The expansion of Russia is 
one of the most striking features of the great European develop- 
ment which we are following. This outward movement has put 
her in possession of about one seventh of the habitable earth. 

Russia made no material territorial gains in Europe, aside 
from the acquisition of Finland and part of Prussian Poland, 
during the nineteenth century, although, as we have seen, she 
fought in three great wars for this end and shattered into frag- 
ments the Turkish Empire, which lay between her and the 
goal of her ambition, — Constantinople. But in Asia the addi- 
tions which, during this period, she made to her empire were 
immense in extent. By the middle of the century she had ab- 
sorbed a great part of the Caucasus region, encroaching here upon 
both Persia and Turkey in Asia. During the latter half of the 
century she steadily pushed forward her boundaries in Central 
Asia. She conquered or conciliated the tribes of Turkestan and 
advanced her frontier in this quarter far towards the south, — 
close up against Afghanistan. In the very heart of the continent 

14 Along with this railway project is being discussed a proposal for the restoration 
of the ancient irrigation works of the Tigris and Euphrates region. It is estimated 
by Sir William Willcocks that $100,000,000 expended in the restoration of the irriga- 
tion system of the ancient Babylonians would bring a return of at least $300,000,000. 
What has already been done for Egypt by the building of the great storage Nile dam 
at Assuan will almost certainly at no remote date be repeated here in what was 
formerly the "Asian Egypt." 



THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY 739 

her outposts are now established upon the lofty table-lands of 
the Pamirs, the " Roof of the World." Here her frontier and 
that of the British Empire are only twenty miles apart. In the 
extreme eastern part of Asia she obtained from China, under 
circumstances which will be explained a little farther on (sec. 
1044), the lease of Port Arthur, one of the most important Asiatic 
harbors on the Pacific, and occupied the large Chinese province 
of Manchuria, which occupation it was generally believed would 
end in the actual annexation of that magnificent domain to the 
Russian Empire. 

Thus by the end of the century Russia in her expansion had 
not only subjugated the nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes of 
Central Asia, but had also won territories from the three semi- 
civilized states of the continent, Turkey, Persia, and China, and 
was crowding heavily upon all those countries. 

1037. The Trans-Siberian Railway. — Russia's most noteworthy 
undertaking during the nineteenth century in connection with her 
Asiatic empire was the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway, 
which now unites St. Petersburg with the Pacific ports of Vladi- 
vostok and Port Arthur. The construction of this road has made 
accessible to Russian settlers the vast fertile regions of Southern 
Siberia, and will soon render that country a part of the civilized 
world ; for though it may be true as to the past that " civilization 
has come riding on a gun carriage," now it comes riding on a 
locomotive. 

VI. The Expansion of the United States 

1038. The Growth of the United States a Part of the Great Euro- 
pean Expansion Movement. — At first view it might seem that the 
growth of our own country should not be given a place in the 
present chapter. But the expansion of the United States is as 
truly a part of European expansion as is the increase of the Eng- 
lish race in Canada, or in Australasia, or in South Africa. The 
circumstance that the development here has taken place since 
the severance of all political ties binding this country to the 



740 EUROPEAN EXPANSION 

mother land is wholly immaterial. The Canadian, Australian, and 
African developments have as a matter of fact been expansion 
movements from practically secondary and independent centers 
of European settlement. 

Hence to complete our survey of the movement which has put 
in possession or in control of the European peoples so much of 
the earth, we must note — we can simply note — the expansion 
during the past century of the great American Commonwealth. 

1039. How the Territorial Acquisitions of the United States and 
its Growth in Population have contributed to assure the Predomi- 
nance of the Anglo-Saxon Race in Greater Europe Six times dur- 
ing the nineteenth century the United States materially enlarged 
her borders. 15 These gains in territory were in the main at the 
expense of a Latin race, — the Spanish. They have not therefore 
resulted in an actual increase in the possessions of the European 
peoples, but have simply contributed to the predominance, or have 
marked the growing predominance, in this new-forming European 
world of the Anglo-Saxon race. 

Of even greater significance than the territorial expansion of 
the United States during the past century is the amazing growth 
of the Republic during this period in population and in material 
and intellectual resources. At the opening of the century the 
white population of the United States was a little over four mil- 
lions ; at the end of the century it had risen to over sixty-seven 
millions. This is the largest aggregate of human force and intel- 
ligence that the world has yet seen. Even more impressive than 
its actual are its potential capacities. With practically unlimited 
room for expansion, it is impossible adequately to realize into what, 
during the coming centuries, the American people will grow. 

This remarkable growth of an English-speaking nation on the 
soil of the New World has contributed more than anything else, 
save the expansion of Great Britain into Greater Britain, to lend 
impressiveness and import to the movement indicated by the 
expression, " European expansion." 

15 The last enlargement was in 1898, when the United States, as an outcome of a, 
war with Spain, acquired Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands, 



SHALL CHINA BE PARTITIONED? 741 

VII. Check to European Expansion and Aggression 
in Eastern Asia 

1040. Shall China be partitioned? — Before the close of the 
nineteenth century the outward movement of the European 
peoples, which we have now traced in broad outlines, had created 
a great crisis in the life of the peoples of the Far East. It had 
imperiled the independence of one of the great races of mankind, 
the yellow race, comprising perhaps one third of the population 
of the earth. It had raised the questions, Shall China be par- 
titioned? Shall the Mongolian peoples of the Far East be domi- 
nated and their destinies shaped by the European powers? An 
unexpected answer to these questions was given by Japan. 

1041. The Awakening of Japan. — As late as the middle of the 
nineteenth century Japan was a hermit nation. She jealously ex- 
cluded foreigners and refused to enter into diplomatic relations 
with the Western powers. But in the year 1854 Commodore 
Perry of the United States secured from the Japanese govern- 
ment concessions which opened the country to Western influ- 
ences, under which Japan soon awoke to a new life. 

In the course of the half century following this change in 
Japanese policy, the progress made by Japan on all lines, polit- 
ical, material, and intellectual, was something without a parallel 
in history. She transformed her ancient feudal divine-right gov- 
ernment into a representative constitutional system modeled upon 
the political institutions of the West. She adopted almost entire 
the material side of the civilization of the Western nations and 
eagerly absorbed their sciences. 

But what took place, it should be carefully noted, was not a 
Europeanization of Japan. The new Japan was an evolution of 
the old. The Japanese to-day in their innermost life, in their 
deepest instincts, and in their modes of thought are still an 
Oriental people. 

1042. The China-Japan War of 1894 ; a Mongolian Monroe Doc- 
trine. — In 1 894 came the war between Japan and China. A 
chief cause of this war was China's claim to suzerainty over 



742 EUROPEAN EXPANSION 

Korea and her efforts to secure control of the affairs of that 
country. But under the conditions of modern warfare, and par- 
ticularly in view of the Russian advance in Eastern Asia, the 
maintenance of Korea as an independent state seemed to Japan 
absolutely necessary to the security of her island empire. The 
situation is vividly pictured in these words of Okakura-Kakuzo, 
the author of The Awakening of Japan: "Any hostile power," he 
says, " in occupation of the peninsula might easily throw an army 
into Japan, for Korea lies like a dagger ever pointed toward the 
very heart of Japan." 

Still again, realizing that greed of territory would lead the Euro- 
pean powers sooner or later to seek the partition of China and the 
political control of the Mongolian lands of the Far East, Japan 
wished to stir China from her lethargy, make herself her adviser 
and leader, and thus get in a position to control the affairs of 
Eastern Asia. In a word she was resolved to set up a sort of 
Monroe Doctrine in her part of the world, which should close 
Mongolian lands against European encroachments and preserve 
for Asiatics what was still left of Asia. 

The war was short and decisive. It was a fight between David 
and Goliath. China with her great inert mass was absolutely help- 
less in the hands of her tiny antagonist. With the Japanese army 
in full march upon Peking, the Chinese government was forced to 
sue for peace. China now recognized the independence of Korea, 
and ceded to Japan Formosa and the extreme southern part of 
Manchuria, including Port Arthur. But at this juncture of affairs 
Russia, supported by France and Germany, jealously intervened. 
These powers forced Japan to accept a money indemnity in lieu of 
territory on the continent. She was permitted, however, to take 
possession of the island of Formosa. 

1043. China in Process of Dismemberment; the Boxer Uprising 
(1900). — The march of the little Japanese army into the heart of 
the huge Chinese Empire was in its consequences something like 
the famous march of the Ten Thousand Greeks through the great 
Persian Empire (sec. 208). It revealed the surprising weakness 
of China, — a fact known before to all the world, but never so 



CHINA IN PROCESS OF DISMEMBERMENT 743 

perfectly realized as after the Japanese exploit, — and marked her 
out for partition. The process of dismemberment began without 
unnecessary delay. Germany, Russia, England, and France each 
demanded and received from China the cession or lease of a port. 
The press in Europe and America began openly to discuss the 
impending partition of the Chinese Empire and to speculate as 
to how the spoils would be divided. 

Suddenly the whole Western world was startled by the intelli- 
gence that the legations, or embassies, of all the European powers 
at Peking were hemmed in and besieged by a Chinese mob aided 
by the imperial troops. Then quickly followed a report of the 
massacre of all the Europeans in the city. 

Strenuous efforts were at once made by the different Western 
nations, as well as by Japan, to send an international force to the 
rescue of their representatives and the missionaries and other 
Europeans with them, should it chance that any were still alive. 
Not since the Crusades had so many European nations joined in 
a common undertaking. There were in the relief army Russian, 
French, English, American, and German troops, besides a strong 
Japanese contingent. The relief column fought its way through 
to Peking and forced the gates of the capital. The worst had not 
happened, and soon the tension of the Western world, which had 
lasted for six weeks, was relieved by the glad news of the rescue 
of the beleaguered little company of Europeans. 

All which it concerns us now to notice is the place which this 
remarkable passage in Chinese history holds in the story of 
European expansion which we have been rehearsing. The point 
of view to which our study has brought us discloses this at once. 

The insurrection had at bottom for its cause the determination 
of the Chinese to set a limit to the encroachments of the Western 
races, to prevent the dismemberment of their country, to pre- 
serve China for the Chinese. All the various causes that have 
been assigned for the uprising are included in this general under- 
lying cause. 

1044. The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). — Early in the 
year 1904 war opened between Japan and Russia. Respecting 



744 



EUROPEAN EXPANSION 



the profound cause of this conflict, little need be added to what 
has already been said in the preceding paragraphs. Soon after 
Russia had forced Japan to give up Port Arthur and the terri- 
tory in Manchuria ceded to her by the terms of the treaty with 
China after the Chino- Japanese War of 1894 (sec. 1042), she 

herself secured from China a lease of 
the most " strategic portion " of this 
same territory (1898), and straight- 
way proceeded to transform Port 
Arthur into a great naval and mili- 
tary fortress, which was to be the 
Gibraltar of the East. Moreover 
she occupied the whole of the great 
Chinese province of Manchuria. 
Notwithstanding she had given sol- 
emn pledges that the occupation of 
this territory should be only tem- 
porary, she not only violated these 
pledges but made it evident by her 
acts that she intended, besides mak- 
ing Manchuria a part of the Russian 
Empire, also to seize Korea. But 
Russian control of this stretch of 
seaboard and command of the East- 
ern seas meant that Japan would be 
hemmed in by a perpetual blockade 
and her existence as an independent 
nation imperiled. It would place 
her destiny in the hands of Russia. 
Japan could not accept this fate, and 
drew the sword. 

The sanguinary war was signal- 
ized by an unbroken series of as- 
tonishing victories for the Japanese on land and on sea. They 
assumed practical control of Korea, and under Field Marshal 
Oyama wrested from the Russian armies under Kuropatkin the 




Fig. 161. — Field Marshal 
Oyama. (From a stereo- 
graph; copyright, 1904, by 
the H. C. White Company, 
New York) 



THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR 745 

southernmost portion of Manchuria. Port Arthur, after one of 
the longest and most memorable sieges of modern times, was 
forced to capitulate. 16 

The strong Russian fleet in the Eastern waters at the beginning 
of hostilities was virtually destroyed. 17 A second great fleet sent 
out from the Baltic Sea was met in the Korean Straits by the 
Japanese fleet under Admiral Togo, and the greater part of the 
ships were sunk or captured. 18 This was Japan's Salamis. 19 

Through the mediation of President Roosevelt peace envoys 
of Russia and Japan were now brought together at Portsmouth, 
in the United States, and the war was ended by what will be 
known in history as the Peace of Portsmouth. 20 

The ultimate consequences of the war for the nations engaged 
and for civilization cannot yet be estimated ; but it seems certain 
that the final results will be more momentous and far-reaching 
than those of any other conflict of races recorded in modern 
history. One result is already assured. The war has not only 
safeguarded Japan's national existence but has also insured the 
territorial integrity of China. In a word, it has set limits to 
European encroachments in Eastern Asia and put in the hands 
of the Mongol peoples whose independence has been imperiled 
the shaping of their own lives and destinies. The entrance of 
these peoples, under the inspiring leadership of Japan, into the 
great family of free, self-governed, and progressive nations means 
the shifting of the center of gravity of the world. 21 

16 January n, 1905. The siege was conducted by General Nogi and Admiral 
Togo ; the defense of the place was made by General Stoessel. 

17 February 25-March 12, 1905, was fought the great battle of Mukden, in which 
the Japanese were victors. 

1 8 May 28, 1905. The Russian fleet was commanded by Admiral Rojestvensky. 

19 Compare sees. 181 and 753. 

20 The treaty was signed September 5, 1905. Among the important articles of this 
treaty are the following: (1) Permission to Japan to make Korea her ward; (2) the 
evacuation of Manchuria by both the Russians and the Japanese; (3) the transfer 
to Japan by Russia of all her rights at Port Arthur and Dalny ; (4) the division of 
the Manchurian railway between Japan and Russia ; (5) the cession by Russia to 
Japan of the southern part of the island of Saghalien. 

21 For the influence of the war upon Liberalism in Russia, see sec, 1022. 



746 EUROPEAN EXPANSION 

References. — In preparing the following list of books no attempt has 
been made to distinguish between primary and secondary authorities, for 
the reason that so many of the works dealing with the subject of this 
chapter are of a mixed character. 

Works of a general character : Morris, H. C, The History of Coloni- 
zation, 2 vols. ; has a good bibliography. Ireland, A., Tropical Coloni- 
zation ; this also contains a list of books relating to the subject. Reinsch, 
P. S., Colonial Government. KlDD, B., The Control of the Tropics. Bryce, 
J., The Relations of the Advanced and the Backward Races of Mankind. 

For the British Colonial Empne : Seeley, J. R., The Expansion of 
England. EGERTON, H. E., A Short History of British Colonial Policy. 
Caldecott, A., English Colonization and Empire. Bourinot, J. G, 
Canada under British Rule, 1760-fgoo. Jenks, E., History of the Aus- 
tralasian Colonies. Bryce, J., Impressions of South Africa. 

For Europe in Africa: Johnston, H. H., A History of the Colonization 
of Africa. Stanley, H. M., Through the Hark Continent, 2 vols., and 
The Congo and the Rounding of its Free State. Keltie, J. S., The Par- 
tition of Africa. Milner, A., England in Egypt. Hughes, T., Living- 
stone. Paul Kruger, Memoirs. 

For Russia in Asia : Kennan, G., Siberia and the Exile System, 2 vols. 
Hellwald, F. von, The Russians in Central Asia. Curzon, G. N., 
Russia in Central Asia in i88g and the Anglo-Russian Question. SHOE- 
MAKER, M. M., The Great Siberian Railway. Krausse, A., Russia in Asia. 
Norman, H., All the Russias. Skrine, F. H., The Expansion of Russia, 
1815-igoo. HosiE, A., Manchuria, Its People, Resources, and Recent His- 
tory. Wright, G. F., Asiatic Russia, 2 vols. 

For the problems of the Far East, created by the European expansion 
movement : China's Only Hope, by Chang Chih Tung, Viceroy of Liang-Hi. 
This has been pronounced by high authority " one of the most remarkable 
books, if not the most remarkable book, written [dictated] by a Chinese 
during the past six hundred years." Okakura-Kakuzo, The Awakening 
of Japan. AsAKAWA, The Russo-Japanese Conflict. Curzon, G. N., Prob- 
lems of the Far East. Mahan, A. T., The Problem of Asia. Leroy-Beau- 
LIEU, A., The Awakening of the East. CoLQUHOUN, A. R., China in Trans- 
formation and The Mastery of the Pacific. Reinsch, P. S., World Politics 
at the End of the Nineteenth Century as influenced by the Oriental Situation. 

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Resume of the history of the lost 
colonial empires of the earlier Modern Age. 2. Livingstone and Stanley. 
3. Founding of the Congo Free State. 4. The storage dam at the First 
Cataract of the Nile. 5. The Cape-to-Cairo railroad. 6. France in 
Algeria. 7, The Trans-Siberian Railway. 8. Asia for the Asiatics. 



CHAPTER LXXVI 
THE WORLD STATE 

For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, 

Saw a Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be ; 

Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd 
In the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World. — Tennyson. 

1045. Introductory. — " It is a favorite maxim of mine," writes 
Professor Seeley in his Expansion of England, " that history, 
while it should be scientific in its method, should pursue a prac- 
tical object. That is, it should not merely gratify the reader's 
curiosity about the past but modify his view of the present and 
his forecast of the future. Now if this maxim be sound, the his- 
tory of England ought to end with something that might be called 
a moral. Some large conclusion ought to arise out of it ; it ought 
to exhibit the general tendency of English affairs in such a way 
as to set us thinking about the future and divining the destiny 
which is reserved for us." 

The inspiring destiny for England which Professor Seeley reads 
in her past and present history is Imperial Federation, — that is, 
a great federal union embracing the mother land and her colonies, 
organized after the model of the United States of America. 

Professor Seeley's maxim must needs be applied to universal 
history if its study is to issue in anything really worthy and 
practical. We must try to discover the tendency of the historic 
evolution, to discern the set of the current of world events, and 
to divine the destiny reserved for the human race. Only thus 
shall we be able to form practical ideals for humanity and strive 
intelligently and hopefully for their realization. 

1046. From the Clan State to the Federal State. — Now there 
is no tendency in universal history, broadly viewed, more manifest 
than the tendency toward world unity. First it was the clan, 

747 



748 THE WORLD STATE 

then the tribe, then the city-state, and then the nation states * of 
modern times. And just now among these great nation states a 
state of a new type has arisen, — the federal state, of which our 
Union, consisting of forty-five states, is the model. Constituted 
" in the image and likeness " of this are the Dominion of Canada, 
the Commonwealth of Australia, the Swiss Confederation, and the 
new German Empire. So characteristic a feature, indeed, of the 
political life of the present is this federation movement, that ours 
has been called the Federal Age. 

The significant thing about this federal movement is that the 
natural and logical issue of national federalism is international fed- 
eralism. The United States of America foreshadows • the United 
States of Europe. The obstacles in the way of such a federation 
of the European nations are not so great as those which, scarcely 
more than a generation ago, seemed to render chimerical all 
attempts to build up unified nations out of the discordant elements 
existing, for example, in Italy and in Germany. 

1047. Preparations in Different Domains for the World State. 
— And, in truth, during the last century, in different realms, the 
conditions precedent of a great federation of all the nations of 
the earth have been supplied by humanity's advance and achieve- 
ments. In the political realm all that the age-spirit has accom- 
plished would seem to have for its ultimate aim the preparing of 
the way for international federation. More than a century ago 
Immanuel Kant, in his essay on Perpetual Peace, affirmed that a 
prerequisite for the federation of the world was the establishment 
by all the nations of representative government. If we recall what 
the union of the autocratic governments of Europe in the Holy 
Alliance meant (sec. 964), we shall understand Kant. A world 
union of despotic governments would be the tomb of liberty, 
individual and national, — a world-wide Russian despotism. 

When Kant wrote his plea for peace, autocratic government 
prevailed almost everywhere in Europe. We have seen how, 
during the century which has passed since then, the Democratic 

1 We disregard purely artificial unions, unions created and maintained by force, 
such as the Roman Empire. 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERALISM 749 

Revolution has established, or is establishing, representative gov- 
ernment in all the Christian states of the continent. Furthermore, 
in all the progressive nations outside of Europe — in the United 
States, in Canada, in Australia, in Japan — the management of 
public affairs is in the hands of the people. Thus has the first pre- 
requisite of the Universal State been supplied in the case of almost 
all the great nations and communities of the civilized world. 

A second significant preparation in the political realm for the 
world union is federalism. This supplies the principle which 
may be applied to the organization of the world without danger 
to the principle of home rule and legitimate national freedom ; 
for it deprives the uniting states, as exemplified in our own Union, 
of nothing save that "lawless freedom" which they now use to 
do one another hurt and harm. 

While the basis of a World State has thus been laid in the 
political domain through the incoming of democracy and feder- 
alism, an equally important preparation for the permanent organ- 
ization of the world has been made in the moral realm. Throughout 
the last century the sentiment of the brotherhood of man has been 
greatly deepened and strengthened. This new moral sentiment 
constitutes a force which is working irresistibly in the interest of 
a world union based on international amity and good will. 

It is most significant that at the same time that these move- 
ments towards world unity have characterized progress in the 
political and moral realms, wonderful discoveries and inventions 
in the physical domain — the steam railway, the steamship, the 
telegraph, the telephone, wireless telegraphy, and a hundred others 
— have brought the once isolated nations close alongside one 
another and have made easily possible, in truth made necessary, 
the formation of the world union. 

1048. The Interparliamentary Union. — One of the most impor- 
tant of the agencies at work for international organization is what 
is known as the Interparliamentary Union. This is an association 
made up exclusively of members of national legislatures or parlia- 
ments. Its membership now (1906) numbers more than two thou- 
sand. Because of the noble character of the men composing this 



75o 



THE WORLD STATE 




Fig. 162. — "The Christ of the 

Andes." 2 (From a photograph ; 
courtesy of Senora Carolina 
Huidobro) 

" Sooner shall these mountains crumble 
unto dust, than Argentines and Chilians 
break the peace which at the feet of 
Christ the Redeemer they have sworn 
to maintain." — Inscription on Monu- 
ment 



international society, as well as 
because of their connection with 
the practical work of legislation 
in the different states, this body 
is the most influential of the 
agencies now working for the 
organization of the world. 

1049. The International Peace 
Conference at The Hague and the 
Establishment of the Interna- 
tional Court of Arbitration (1899). 
— Already more has been ac- 
complished in the way of the 
actual creation of the machinery 
of a World State than is gen- 
erally realized. Just as the 
nineteenth century was closing 
the Tsar Nicholas surprised the 
world by proposing to all the 
governments having representa- 
tives at the Russian court the 
meeting of a conference " to 
consider means of insuring the 
general peace of the world and 
of putting a limit to the progres- 
sive increase of armaments 
which weigh upon all nations." 
All the governments addressed 
accepted the proposal, and in 



2 In 1903 the South American republics of Chile and Argentina, having happily 
settled by arbitration a long-standing boundary controversy which threatened to 
involve the two countries in war, mutually bound themselves by treaty to reduce 
their military and naval armaments and for a stated period to submit every matter 
of dispute arising between them to arbitration. Upon one of the highest boundary 
ranges of the Andes the two nations have erected a colossal bronze statue of Christ 
as the sacred guardian of the peace to which they are pledged. The statue was 
unveiled March 13, 1904. 



SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 751 

1899 tne convention met at The Hague in the Netherlands. The 
most important outcome of the deliberations of the body was the 
establishment of a permanent International Court of Arbitration 
to which all nations may have recourse for the settlement of 
interstate disputes. . Since the creation of the court several cases 
have been referred to it and amicably settled. 

The formation of this International Court is a most noteworthy 
event. In the words of a recent writer, " It may be possible that 
looking back a hundred years from now it will be seen that its 
establishment was the most important single event of modern 
times." It brings measurably nearer the time when the barbarous 
wager of battle between nations shall have become such a tradi- 
tion of an outgrown past as is now the old wager of battle between 
individuals (sec. 505). Andrew Carnegie, recognizing the import 
of the work of the convention for the peace of the world, has 
made a gift of $ 1,5 00, 000 for the erection at The Hague of a 
permanent home for the court, - — what is to be known as The 
Temple of Peace. 

1050. The Call for a Second International Conference and the 

Proposed Creation of a Stated World Congress, or Parliament 

In the fall of the year 1904 the President of the United States 
invited the governments of the world to send delegates to a 
second International Conference. One of the matters which the 
friends of the movement propose shall be given a prominent 
place on the programme of the meeting is " the advisability of 
establishing an International Congress to convene periodically for 
the discussion of international questions." The assembling of the 
conference will probably take place some time during the present 
year (1906). 

It is a reasonable hope that the deliberations of the proposed 
meeting may result in the establishment of an International Con- 
gress, necessarily with only advisory powers at first, but which, 
like the Congress of our Confederation of 1781, may in due time 
grow into a true legislative body, competent to deal with all affairs 
of international concern. If such should be the outcome of this 
projected conference, then will the second great step have been 



752 THE WORLD STATE 

taken in the formation of the World State, and hopeful advance 
made in the establishment among the nations of the conditions 
of permanent peace. 

References. — Seeley, J. R., The Expansion of England. Hart, A. B., 
An Introduction to the Study of Federal Government. Kant, I., Perpetual 
Peace. Jean de Bloch, The Future of War, being the sixth volume of 
the author's extended work under this same title. Trueblood, B. F., The 
Federation of the World and A Regular International Advisory Congress 
(pamphlet). Mead, L. A., A Primer of the Peace Movement (pamphlet). 
Fiske, J., American Political Ideas. Sumner, C, Addresses on War. 
Foster, J. W., Arbitration and The Hague Court. Holls, F. W., The Peace 
Conference at The Hague. Bridgman, R. L., World Organization. Tolstoi, 
L., Letter on the Russo-fafanese War (pamphlet). Baroness von Suttner, 
Lay Down Your Arms (historical novel). The Christ of the Andes (pam- 
phlet). This leaflet, or any of the books and pamphlets here cited, except 
the first two, can be obtained of the American Peace Society, 31 Beacon 
Street, Boston. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Note. — In the case of words whose correct pronunciation has not 
seemed to be clearly indicated by their accentuation and syllabication, the 
sounds of the letters have been denoted thus: a, like a in gray ; a, like a, 
only less prolonged; a, like a in have ; a, like a in far; a, like a in all ; e, 
like ee in meet ; e, like e, only less prolonged; e, like e in end ; e, like e in 
thire ; e, like e in err ; I, like i in pi?ie ; 1, like iinptn; o, like <? in note; 
o, like J, only less prolonged ; o, like o in ntit ; 6, like o in <2r<5; do, like oo 
in moon ; u, like ?^ in z/.r<? y ii, like the French u ; c and eh, like k ; c, like s ; 
g, like g in gel ; g, like 7'; s, like z ; ch, as in German ach ; G, small capi- 
tal, as in German Hamburg ; n, like ni in minion; n denotes the nasal 
sound in French, being similar to ng in song. 



Ab'e-lard, Peter, 442. 
Abraham, Hebrew patriarch, 49. 
Abu Bekr (a'boo bek'r), first caliph, 

366 n. 6. 
Ab-ys-sin'i-a, 728, 735 n. 13. 
A-ehae'a, Roman province, 161. 
A-ehas'an League, 160 n. 8 ; hos- 
tages in Italy, 242 ; war with 

Rome, 243. 
A-ehse'ans in the Heroic Age, 75. 
A ehil'les, 80. 
Acre (a'ker), 413. 
Acropolis, the, at Athens, 105. 
Ae'ti-um, battle of, 272. 
A-dri-an-o'ple, battle near (a.d. 378), 

306 ; Treaty of, 720. 
^Ediles (e'dils), plebeian, duties, 212. 
iE-ga'tian Islands, naval battle near, 

232. 
yE-ge'an Sea, islands in, 74. 
^E-gos-pot'a-mT, capture of Athenian 

fleet at, 143. 
.iE-o'li-ans, the, 76. 
i£'o-lus, 86 n. 1. 
-(E'qui-ans, 212. 
iEs'ehi-nes, 178. 
^Es'ehy-lus, tragic poet, 174. 
A-e'ti-us, Roman general, 313. 
iE-to'li-an League, 160 n. 8. 
Afghan War, first, 730 ; second, 730 

n. 7. 
Af-ghan-is-tan', 730 n. 7. 
A-fra-si-ab', 430. 



Africa, Portuguese exploration of, 
489 ; partition of, 727 ; English in, 
732-734; French in, 735 ; Ger- 
mans in, 737. 

Africa, North, recovery of, by Jus- 
tinian, 337 ; conquest of, by the 
Arabs, 366. 

Agade (a-ga'de), 32. 

Ag-a-mem'non, 80. 

Agincourt (a'zhan-koor"), battle of, 

452- 
Ag-rip-pi'na, 283. 
Ah'ri-man, 63. 

A-hu'ra Maz'da. See Ormazd. 
Aix-la-Chapelle (aks-la-sha-pel'), 

Treaty of (1668), 571; (1748), 612. 
Alaric, first invasion of Italy, 307 ; 

wrings ransom from Rome, 309; 

sacks the city, 310; death, 311. 
Albert, archbishop of Mainz, 499. 
Albert, duke of Austria, 469. 
Albert the Great, Schoolman, 442. 
Al'bi-geVses, crusades against, 417. 
Al-ci-bl'a-des, 140, 141, 143. 
Alcuin (al'kwin), 376. 
Aldine Press, at Venice, 481. 
Al'dus Ma-nu'ti-us, 481. 
Al-e-man'm, 342. 

Alembert, d' (a-loh-bar'), 630 n. 2. 
Alexander the Great, 1 51-156. 
Alexander I, Tsar, 681 ; II, 724. 
Alexandria, in Egypt, 153. 
Alexandrian Age, literature of, 178. 



753 



754 INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Alexandrian Library, 159. 

Alexius Com-ne'nus I, Greek emp., 

408. 
Alfred the Great, k. of England, 381 

n. 2. 
Algeria, 735. 

Ali (a/lee), caliph, 366 n. 6. 
AHi-a, battle of the, 218. 
Almansur(al-man-soor'), caliph, 368. 
Alphabet, the Semitic, origin of, 8 ; 

disseminated by the Phoenicians, 

58. 
Al-phe'us, river, 74. 
Alphonso, k. of Castile, emperor- 
_ elect H.R.E., 467. 
Al-sace' (Ger. Elsass), ceded to 
France, 561 ; to Germany, 687. 
Al'va, duke of, 543. 
A-ma'sis, k. of Egypt, 104. 
A-men-ho'tep IV, 18 n. 3. 
Amiens (a-me-an'), Treaty of, 659. 
Ammon, oasis of, 60. 
Am-phic'ty-o-ny, the, 89. See Sacred- 
Wars. 
Amphitheaters, shows of, 327-329. 
Amurath (a-moo-rar/) I, Turkish 

sultan, 429. 
Am'y-tis, 47 n. 1. 
A-na'cre-on or A-nac're-on, 173. 
Anagni (a-nan'ye), 423. 
An-a-to'li-an Railway, 737. 
An-ax-ag'o-ras, 181. 
A-nax-i-man'der, 180 n. 2. 
An-ax-im'e-nes, 180 n. 2. 
Ancestor worship, among the 

Chinese, 70 ; among the Romans, 

199. _ 
Anchorites. See Hermits. 
An'cus Mar'ti-us, k. of Rome, 206. 
Andalusia (an-da-lu'she-a), origin of 

the name, 312. 
An-dro-ni'cus, Livius, poet, 321. 
Anglo-Saxons, conquest of Britain, 

339. See England. 
Angro Mainyus (an'gro min'yobs). 

See Ahriman. 
Anjou (ori-zhoo'), French province, 

445- 
Annates, 501 n. 2; Act of, 526. 
Anne, queen of England, 616-618. 
Anshan (an'shan), in Elam, 59. 
An-tig'o-ne, 175 n. 1. 
An-ti'o-chus III, the Great, k. of 

Syria, 158, 242. 



An'ti-um, 222. 

An-to-ni'nus Pi'us, Roman emp., 289. 

Antony of Bourbon, k. of Navarre, 

55i- 

Antony, Mark, the triumvir, 270-273. 

Antwerp, Spanish fury at, 545. 

A-pel'les, Greek painter, 171. 

Ap'en-nlnes, 196. 

Aph'ro-di'te, goddess, 86. 

Apis, sacred Egyptian bull, 23. 

A-poc'ry-pha, 52. 

A-polTo, his oracle at Delphi, 87. 

Appian Way. See Via Appia. 

Appius Claudius. See Claudius. 

Apulia, 195. 

A'quse Sex'ti-se, battle of, 252 n. 3. 

Aqueducts, Roman, 319. 

A-qui'nas, Thomas, 442. 

Arabian Nights, 369. 

Arabic system of notation, 370. 

Arabs, 362. See Mohammedanism. 

Aragon, union with Castile, 464. 

Ar-be'la, battle of, 153. 

Ar-ca'di-a, geography of, 7. 

Ar-ca'di-ans, 7. 

Ar-ca'di-us, Roman emp. of the 
East, 307. 

Ar-ehi-me'des, the mathematician, 
187. 

Architecture, Egyptian, 27; Baby- 
lonian, 34 ; Persian, 63 ; Greek, 
162-165; Roman, 317-320; medi- 
aeval, 437 n. 3. 

Archons at Athens, 106. 

A-re-op'a-gus, council of the, 106; 

_ stripped of its authority, 127 n. 3. 

A'res, 86. 

Argentina (ar-jen-te'na), 750 n. 2. 

Ar'go-lis, description of, 72. 

Ar'go-nauts, the, 79. 

Ar'gos, 72. 

Ar-is-t'ar'chus, the astronomer, 187. 

Ar-is-ti'des, 117, 125. 

A-ris'ti-on, stele of, 166. 

A-ris-to-gi'ton, Athenian tyrannicide, 
109. 

Ar-is-toph'a-nes, comic poet, 176. 

Ar'is-tot-le, life and works, 184. 

AVi-us, 302 n. 5. 

Ar-ma'da, Invincible, 536-538. 

Ar-min'i-us, 277. 

Ar-ta-pher'nes, Persian general, 115. 

Artaxerxes (ar-tax-erx'es) II, 145. 

Ar'te-mis, goddess, 86. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 755 



Ar-te-mis'i-um, naval battle of, 121 
n. 3. 

Arthur, King, 339. 

Ar'y-ans, use of the term, 1 1 n. 5. 

As'pern, battle of, 668. 

Assassination, political, 547 n. 4. 

As-shur-ban'i-pal, 43. 

Assignats (as'ig-nats ; Fr. pron. 
a-se-na'), 638 n. 6. 

Assuan (as-swan'), 734. 

Assyrian Empire, rise of, ^3 i politi- 
cal history, 42, 43 ; civilization, 
43-48. 

Astrology among the Babylonians, 

38- 
Astronomy among the Egyptians, 

28 ; among the Babylonians, 40. 
As-tu'ri-as, the, 463. 
Atahualpa (a-ta-wal'pa), 494. 
Ath-a-na'si-us, 302 n. 5. 
A-the'na, goddess, 86. 
Athenian Empire, 124-134. 
Athens, history of, up to the Persian 

Wars, 105-111 ; her fall (404 B.C.), 

H3- 

A'thos or Ath'os, Mount, 115, 118. 

Attainder, bill of, 585 n. 3. 

Attica, ethnic elements of its popu- 
lation, 105 ; consolidation of the 
villages of, 106 ; the four so-called 
"Attic tribes," lion. 6; ten new 
Attic tribes formed by Clisthenes, 
no n. 6. 

At'ti-cus Herodes, 293. 

At'ti-la, 312, 313. 

Auerstadt (ou'er-stet), battle of, 
666. 

Au'fi-dus, river, 196. 

Augsburg, Confession of, 515 n. 2; 
Religious Peace of, 515; League 

of, 573- 
Augurs, College of, 204. 
Au'gus-tine, his mission to Britain, 

342. 
Augustus Caesar. See Octavius. 
Augustus the Strong, 605. 
Au-re'li-us, Marcus, Roman emp., 

reign, 290; his Meditations, 290. 
Ausgleich (ous'glich), 718. 
Aus'pi-ces, taking of the, 231. 
Austerlitz (ous'ter-lits), battle of, 

664. 
Australasia, 729. 
Australia, Commonwealth of, 729. 



Austria, House of, 468 n. 14; im- 
perial crown becomes hereditary 
in, 469; under Charles V, 511; 
under Maria Theresa, 611-613; 
empire of, 665 ; gains at Congress 
of Vienna, 680 ; German interests 
of, 709-713 ; in Austro-Hungarian 
monarchy, 717-719. 

Austria-Hungary since 1866, 717— 
719. 

Austrian Succession, War of, 611. • 

Austro-Sardinian War, 704. 

Auto de fe (a'to-da-fa"), the, 465; 
at Valladolid, 542. 

Avignon (a'vln'yoh"), 423. 

A'zov, Russians capture, 601. 

Aztecs, 493. 

Ba'ber, founder of Mongol state in 

India, 428. 
Babylon, rise of, 33 ; fall of, 48. 
Babylonian Empire, political history, 

30-33; civilization, 34— 41. 
Babylonian Genesis, the, 39. 
Bacon, Francis, 581. 
Bacon, Roger,-443. 
Bactria, conquest of, by Alexander, 

154- 
Bagdad, founded, 368. 
Bal-a-kla'va, 722. 
Bal-bo'a, Vasco de, 492 n. 4. 
Baldwin of Flanders, Latin emp. of 

the East, 413. 
Balliol (ba.n-ol), John, Scottish 

king, 449. 
Ban'nock-burn", battle of, 450. 
Barca. See Hamilcar. 
Barebone, Praise-God, 591. 
Barrack emperors, the, 293. 
Bastille (bas-tel), storming of the, 

636. 
Batavian Republic (this had been 

created in 1795), ma de into king- 
dom of Holland, 662. 
Baths. See Thermce. 
Bautzen (bout'sen), battle of, 675. 
Bavaria, kingdom, 665. 
Ba-zaine', Marshal, 687. 
Becket. See Thomas Becket. 
Bede (bed), the Venerable, 343, n. 1. 
Bedouins (bed'oo-enz), the, 362. 
Bed'r, battle of, 364. 
"Beggars," origin of name, 542; 

Water Beggars, 545. 



756 INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Be-his-tun' Rock, 61. 

Belgium, 546 ; war of Louis XIV 
concerning, 571 ; ceded to Austria, 
575 ; in kingdom of Netherlands, 
684; independent kingdom, 684. 

Bel-i-sa'ri-us, general, 3 58. 

Bel-ler'o-phon, the, 677. 

Beluchistan (bel-ob-chis-tan'), 154. 

Benedetti (ba-na-det'te), 715. 

Benedictines, order of the, 346, 347. 

Ben-e-ven'tum, battle of, 224. 

Benevolences, 522. 

Beresina (ber-e-ze'na), river, 674. 

Ber-lin' (Ger. pron. ber-len'), Decree, 
667 ; Treaty of, 723. 

Bes'ti-a, Lu'ci-us Cal-pur'ni-us, con- 
sul, 251. 

Bible, Luther's, 502 ; King James', 
581. 

Bishops' War, 584. 

Bis'marck, Otto von, 712-717. 

Black Death, 452. 

Black Hole of Calcutta, 621 n. 6. 

Blenheim (blen'im), battle of, 574. 

" Bloody Assizes," the, 596 n. 5. 

Bliich'er, 677. 

Boccaccio (bok-kat'cho), 478. 

Bce-o'ti-a, 71. 

Boers (boors), 732. 

Bohemia, in Thirty Years' War, 557. 

Bo'he-mond, prince of Otranto, 409. 

Boleyn, Anne (bobl'm), 525, 526. 

Bologna (bS-lon'ya), University of, 

439- 
Bonaparte. See Jerome, Joseph, 

Louis, Napoleon. 
Book of the Dead, 22. 
Bo'ra, Catherine von, 501 n. 3. 
Borodino (bor-o-de'no), battle of, 

673- 

Borromeo (bor-ro-ma'5), Carlo, 506. 

Bos'ni-a, 723. 

Bos'po-rus, the, 99. 

Bossuet (bo-sii-a'), 576 n. 4. 

Bosworth Field, battle of, 454. 

Bot't'a, M., 44. 

Boulogne (boo-lon'), camp of, 664. 

Bourbon, House of, accession in 
France, 553; in Spain, 574; re- 
stored in France, 675 ; heirs ex- 
pelled from France, 688. 

Boxer uprising, 742. 

Boyne, battle of the, 599. 

Braddock, 620. 



Bradshaw, 595. 

Brah'ma, 66. 

Brahmans, 65. 

Brandenburg, electorate of, 609. 

Brazil, Portuguese royal family flee 

to, 667. 
Bren'nus, Gallic leader, 219. 
Bretigny (bre-ten-yi'), Treaty of, 

451 n. 6. 
Briel (brel), 544, 545. 
Bright, John, 692 n. 2. 
Britain, Anglo-Saxon conquest of, 

283, 339. See England. 
Bronze, Age of, 4. 
Bruce, Robert, k. of Scotland, 449. 
Bru-maire', Revolution of, 656. 
Brunelleschi (brob-nel-les'ke), 483 

n. 2. 
Brut'ti-um, 195. 
Brutus, Marcus, 269, 271. 
Budapest, 718. 
Buddha (bobd'ha), 66. 
Buddhism, 66, 69. 
Bulgaria, 723 n. 5. 
Bunyan, John, 594. 
Burghley, Lord, 534. 
Burgundians, kingdom of the, 312, 

337- 
Bur'rhus, 283. 
Bu-sen-ti'nus, river, 311. 
Byron, Lord, 720 n. 1. 
Byzantine Empire. See Eastern 

Empire. 
By-zan'ti-um, founding of, 99. See 

Constantinople. 

Cabinet, English, 619. 

Cab'ot, John, 523. 

Cabot, Sebastian, 523. 

Cad'mus, 78. 

Caesar, Augustus. See Octavius. 

Caesar, Gaius. See Caligula. 

Caesar, Gaius Julius, 257, 263-270. 

Caesarion (se-zare-on), 272. 

Cahiers (ka-ya,'), 633. 

Ca-la'bri-a, 195. 

•Ca'lah, 44. 

Calais (ka.riss), captured by Eng- 
lish, 451 n. 6. 

Calendar, Egyptian, 28 ; Babylonian, 
41; Julian, 268; Gregorian, 268 
n. 12 ; French Revolutionary, 647. 

Ca-lig'u-la, Roman emp., 282. 

Caliphate of Bagdad, 368. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 757 



Cal-lic'ra-tes, architect, 133. 

Calmar, Union of, 474. 

Calvin, John, at Geneva, 504. 

Calvinists, 504. 

Cam-ba-lu', Mongol capital, 428. 

Cam-bo'di-a, 736. 

Cambronne (koh-bron'), 677 n. 7. 

Cam-bu'ni-an Mountains, 72. 

Cam-by'ses, 60. 

Ca-mirius. See Furhcs. 

Campagna (kam-pan'ya), 320. 

Campania, 195. 

Campo Formio (kam-p5-for'me-o), 

Treaty of, 654. 
Cam'pus Mar'ti-us, 209. 
Canada, ceded to England, 622 ; 

Dominion of, 728. 
Can'nae, battle of, 237. 
Ca-nos'sa, 405. 
Can-ta/bri-a, 463. 
Can-u-le'i-us, Gaius, tribune, 216. 
Ca-nute', k. of England, 381. 
Cape Colony, 733. 
Ca'pet, Hugh, k. of France, 458. 
Capetians. See France. 
Cap'i-to-llne hill, 207. 
Ca'pre-ae, island, 281. 
Cap'u-a, revolts from Rome, 238, 

, 2 39- 
Car-a-cal'la, Roman emp., 294. 
Car-bo-na'ri, 700. 
Car'che-mish, 18. 
Carloman, k. of Franks, 373. 
Carl'stadt, 503. 
Car-ma'ni-a, 155. 

Carnegie (car-na'gie), Andrew, 751. 
Carnot (kar-no'), Sadi, 687 n. 4. 
Car-o-lin'gi-an family, beginning of, 

373- 
Carrier (kar-ya'), 650. 
Carthage, 227. See Punic Wars. 
Cartwright, 624. 
Casimir-Perier (kaz-i-meV pa-rya'), 

687 n. 4. 
Cas'si-us, Gaius, conspirator, 269, 

271. 
Caste, Hindu system of, 65. 
Castile (kas-teT), the name, 463 ; 

union with Aragon, 464. 
Catacombs, 299. 
Cathay (kath-a'). See China. 
Catherine de' Medici (de ma'de-che), 

55°. 55 1 , 55 2 - 
Catherine of Aragon, 524, 525, 526. 



Catherine II the Great, reign, 606- 
608. 

Catholic Emancipation Act, 696. 

Catholic Reaction, 504-507. 

Cat-i-H'na, Lu'ci-us Ser'gi-us, 262. 

Catiline. See Catilina. 

Cato, Marcus Porcius, the Censor, 
244. 

Cato, Marcus Porcius, the Younger, 
267. 

Ca-tul'lus, poet, 321. 

Cat'u-lus, C. Lutatius, consul, 232. 

Cau'dine Forks, 223. 

Cavaliers, 586. 

Cavour (ka-voor'), Count, 703-705. 

Cayster (ka-is'ter), river, 59. 

Cecil, Robert, 534. 

Cecil, William. See Burgh ley. 

Ce-ero'pi-a, nucleus of Athens, 78. 

Ce'crops, 78. 

Celt-i-be'ri-ans, 247. 

Celts, at opening of the Middle Ages, 
335 ; Christianity among, 343. 

Censors, Roman officials, 217. 

Chaer-o-ne'a, battle of, 150. 

Chal-cid'i-ce, the name, 99. 

Chal^is, colonies of, 99. 

Chaldasan Empire, 47. 

Chalons (sha'lori"), battle of, 312. 

Champollion (sham-pori-on), 22. 

Cha'res, Greek sculptor, 169. 

Charlemagne (shar'le-man), king of 
Franks, 372-377. 

Charles the Bold, duke of Bur- 
gundy, 460. 

Charles Felix, k. of Sardinia, 700. 

Charles Martel, 368, 372. 

Charles the Simple, k. of the West- 
ern Franks, 381. 

Charles I, k. of England, reign, 582- 
588 ; II, reign, 595. 

Charles IV, k. of France, 451; VI, 
452; VII, 452; VIII, 461; IX, 
551,552; X, 683. 

Charles V, emp. H.R.E., commis- 
sions Magellan, 490 ; at Diet of 
Worms, 502; reign, 511-516; VI, 
611. 

Charles II, k. of Spain, 574 ; IV, 
668. 

Charles XII, k. of Sweden, 604-606. 

Chartism, 692. 

Chatham. See Pitt. 

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 456. 



758 INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Che'ops, 15, 16. 

Chev'i-ot (0 r chiv'i-ot) Hills, 52311. 2. 

Chil'de-ric, Merovingian king, 373. 

Chife, 750 n. 2. 

China, early history, 67-70 ; question 
of partition of, 741 ; war with 
Japan, 741 ; in process of dismem- 
berment, 742 ; Boxer uprising, 743. 

Chinese, writing, 67 ; literature, 69 ; 
competitive examinations, 69. 

Chi'Ss, island, 74. 

Chivalry, 392-395. 

Chos'ro-es II, k. of Persia, 360. 

Christ, birth, 279 ; crucifixion, 282. 

Christian IV, k. of Denmark, 558. 

Christianity, first preached, 282 ; 
gains adherents from the higher 
classes, 286; under Trajan, 288; 
martial spirit enters the Church, 
300 ; made in effect state religion 
by Constantine, 301 ; effects upon, 
of imperial patronage, 302 ; one 
of the most vital elements in the 
Empire, 305 ; heresy and idolatry 
suppressed by Theodosius and 
Gratian, 306 ; influence in sup- 
pressing the gladiatorial combats, 
308 ; as factor in mediaeval history, 
334 ; introduced among the Teu- 
tonic tribes, 341-344; introduced 
into Russia, 345 n. 2 ; in French 
Revolution, abolished, 647. See 
Christians. 

Christians, persecution of, under 
Nero, 284 ; under Domitian, 286 ; 
under Marcus Aurelius, 290 ; 
motives of these persecutions, 
290 ; persecutions under Diocle- 
tian, 299 ; status under Julian, 

3°3- 

Chronicle, Anglo-Saxon, 381 n. 2. 

Church, early constitution of, 348; 
separation of the Eastern from 
the Western or Latin Church, 
351. See Papacy. 

Church Councils : Council of Nicaea, 
302; of Pisa, 425; of Constance, 
425 ; of Trent, 505 ; Vatican, 707 
n. 3. 

Cicero, Marcus Tullius, his prosecu- 
tion of Verres, 260 ; First Oration 
against Catiline, 262 ; proscribed, 
270 ; as an orator, 322. 

Cid, poem of the, 466. 



Cim'brl, the, 252. 

Cimon, son of Miltiades, 127. 

Cin-cin-na'tus, legend of, 213. 

Cinna. See Cornelius. 

Circus, games of the, 205. 

Cir'cus Max'i-mus, 317. 

Cirr'ha, 90. 

Cisalpine Republic, first, 654, 656 ; 
second, 659, 662. 

Citizenship, Roman, privileges of, 
202 ; demanded by the Italians, 
253 ; secured by them as result of 
the Social War, 254; Caesar's 
liberality in conferring upon pro- 
vincials, 267; conferred by Cara- 
calla upon all free inhabitants of 
the Empire, 295. 

City-state, the Greek, 84 ; Rome as 
a, 201. 

Civil War (1642-1649), in England, 
586-588. 

Clan. See Gens. 

Clarkson, Thomas, 623. 

Claudius, Appius, decemvir, 215. 

Claudius, Publius, consul, 231. 

Claudius, Roman emp., 282. 

Cle'on, 138. 

Cleopatra, 272, 273. 

Clermont (kler-mon'), Council of, 
408. 

Cle'ru-chies, 98 n. 2. 

Clients, dependents of the Roman 
family, 200. 

ChVthe-nes, constitution of, 1 10. 

Clive, Robert, 621. 

Clo-a'ca, Max'i-ma, 207. 

Clo'vis, k. of the Franks, 338. 

Cluny (klii-ne'), monastery, 402. 

Clyde, river, 618. 

Cnossus (nos'us), Cretan city, 79 n. 2. 

Cobden, Richard, 692 n. 2. 

Codes : Justinian Code, 324 ; Assizes 
of Jerusalem, 410; Code Napo- 
leon, 661. 

Co'drus, k. of Athens, 106. 

Coret, John, 520. 

Coligny, Gaspard de (ko-len-ye'), 

55L 552- 
Colonies, Greek, 98-102 ; Latin, 
226; Roman, 225; European, 486- 

495; 7 2 6-74°- 
Co-los-se'um, 319. 
Colossus of Rhodes, 169. 
Columbus, Christopher, 487. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 759 



Co-mi'ti-a centuriata, 208. 

Comitia curiata, 201. 

Co-mi' ti-um, 207. 

Commercium. See Jus commercii. 

Corn'mo-dus, Roman emp., 293. 

Commons, English House of, origin, 

447. See Parliament, English. 
Commonwealth of England, 589— 

Commune, Revolutionary, of Paris, 

636. 
Compass, invention of, 4S6 n. 1. 
Con-cil'i-um tributum plebis, 216 n. 2. 
Concordat, French, of 1801, 660. 
Confederation of the Rhine, 665. 
Confucius, Chinese sage, 68, 69. 
Congo Free State, 727 n. 2. 
Connubium. See Jus connubii. 
Conrad III, emp. H.R.E., 412. 
Constantine, Roman emp., 299. 
Constantine the Great, reign, 300- 

3°3- 

Con'stan-tlne VI, Eastern emp., 375. 

Constantinople, founded, 303 ; be- 
sieged by Saracens, 367 ; captured 
by crusaders, 413; by Ottoman 
Turks, 429. 

Constituent Assembly, French, 635. 

Consuls, Roman, first, 210. 

Continental Blockade, 667. 

Conventicle Act, 595. 

Convention, French National, 643- 
652. 

Cook, James, Captain, 729. 

Co-per'ni-cus, Nicholas, 491 n. 3. 

Corcyra, island, 74. 

Cordeliers (Eng. pron. kor'de-lers"), 
club, 639. 

Cor'do-va, 367. 

Cor-fin'i-um, 253. 

Corinth, Greek council at, in 481 B.C., 
118; destroyed by Romans, 161, 
242. 

Corinth, isthmus of, 71. 

Corinthia, description of, 72. 

Corn, free distribution of, at Rome, 

33°- 
Corn Laws, English, repealed, 692 

n. 2. 
Corneille (kor-nay'), 576. 
Cor-ne'li-a, mother of the Gracchi, 

251. 
Cornelius Cinna, Lucius, consul, 257. 
Co-rce'bus, victor at Olympia, 88. 



Corporation Act repealed, 696. 

Cor'pus Ju'ris Ci-vi'lis, 324. 

Corsica, 233. 

Cortes (Span. pron. kor-tas'), Her- 
nando, 493. 

Council of Blood, 543. 

Coup tPEtat (koo-da-ta/), of Bru- 
maire, 656. 

Covenanters, 595. 

Cranmer, Thomas, 526, 532. 

Crassus, Marcus Licinius, 263, 265. 

Crecy (kres'se), battle of, 451. 

Crete, in Greek legend, 74. 

Crimea, war in, 721. 

Cris'sa, 90. 

Crce'sus, k. of Lydia, 60. 

Cromwell, Oliver, 586-593. 

Cromwell, Richard, 593. 

Cromwell, Thomas, 525 ; death, 

53S n. 3- 

Crusades, 407-419. 

Cu'mae, oracle at, 100. 

Cu-nax'a, battle of, 145. 

Cuneiform writing, 36 ; its decipher- 
ment, 37. 

Curia, in early Rome, 201. 

Customs Union, German, 711. 

Cuzco (kdoz'ko), 494. 

Cy-ax'a-res, k. of the Medes, 59. 

CycTa-des, the, 74. 

Cy'lon, rebellion of, 107 n. 2. 

Cyclopes (sl-klS'pez), the, 86 n. 1. 

Cyn'ics, the, 185 n. 7. 

Cyn-os-ceph'a-lae, battle of, 241. 

Cyprus, ceded to England, 724. 

Cyr-e-na'i-ca, 102. 

Cy-re'ne, 102. 

Cyrus the Great, 59. 

Cyrus the Younger, 145. 

Czechs (chechs or cheks), 719. 

Dacia, 288. 

Danes. See Scandinavians. 
Dante, Alighieri (a-le-ge-a're), 477. 
Dan'ton (Fr. pron. doh-toh'), 643, 

648. 
Darius, I, 61 ; conquests in Europe, 

113; expeditions against Greece, 

115; III, 152, 153. 
Darnley, Henry Stuart, Lord, 535. 
Da'tis, Persian general, 115. 
David, k. of Hebrews, 50. 
Dec-e-le'a, 142. 
Decelean War, 142-144. 



y60 INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



De-cem'virs, 214. 

Declaration, of Rights, 597 ; of the 
Rights of Man, 638. 

De-la'tors, 281. 

Delhi (del'le), 428. 

De'los, Confederacy of, 125, 126. 

De'los, island, 74. 

Delphian oracle, the, 86; its serv- 
ices in Greek colonization, 99 
n. 3 ; message to the Athenians 
at time of Persian Wars, 121; 
oracle given Spartans at beginning 
of Peloponnesian War, 135. 

Demarcation, Papal Line of, 489. 

Deme (dem), the Attic, no n. 6. 

De-me'ter, cult of, 86. 

De-moc'ri-tus, 181 n. 3. 

Demosthenes, his Philippics, 150; 
his oration on the crown, 178. 

Denmark, in Thirty Years' War, 558 ; 
loses Norway, 680 n. 1. See Cal- 
mar, Union of. 

Descartes (da-karf), 576 n. 4. 

Des-i-de'ri-us, k. of Lombards, 374. 

Dias (de'as), Bartholomew, 487. 

Di-cas'ter-ies, Athenian, description 
of, 131. 

Dictator, Roman, his powers, 210; 
term first made indefinite in 
Sulla's case, 258. 

Diderot (de-dro'), 630. 

Dl-o-cle'tian, Roman emp., 297-299. 

Dl-og'e-nes, the Cynic, 185 n. 7. 

Dl-o-ny'sus, 86 n. 1 ; Theater of, at 
Athens, 165. 

Disestablishment, in Ireland, 697 ; 
proposed in England, Scotland, 
and Wales, 698. 

Disraeli (diz-ra'li), 697. 

Divina Com?nedia (de-ve'na kom- 
ma'de-a), 477. 

Divination, 204. 

Divine right of kings, the theory, 
564 ; its history, 565 ; opinion of 
James I on, 579 ; of Louis XIV, 

5 6 9- 
Dnieper (ne'per), river, 427. 
Do-do'na, oracle at, 87 n. 2. 
Doge (doj), 435. 

Domesday Book (doomz"da'), 399. 
Domestication of animals, 5; of 

plants, 6. 
Dominicans, order of the, 421. 
Domitian, Roman emp., 286. 



Do-mi-tiria, 286. 

Donation of Constantine, 351 n. 7. 

Dorian invasion, legend of, 82. 

Dorians, characteristics of, 76 ; con- 
quer the Peloponnesus, 82. 

Do-ris'cus, plain of, 119. 

Douma, Russian Assembly, 725 n. 8. 

Draco, his code, 107. 

Dragonnades (drag-o-nadz'), 572. 

Drake, Francis, 538. 

Drama, the Attic, origin of, 174. 

Dreibund (drT'boont), 717. 

Drep'a-na, sea fight at, 231 n. 4. 

Drogheda (droch'e-da), 589. 

Du-il'lius, Gaius, consul, 229. 

Dunbar, battle of, 590. 

Duquesne (du-kan'), Fort, 620. 

Dutch. See A T ethej-lands. 

Dutch colonies, at the Cape, 732 ; 
in East Indies, 732 n. 9. 

East India Company, English, 581, 

73i- 

Eastern Empire, 358-361. 

Ebro (a'bro), river, 668. 

Ec-cle'si-a, at Athens, 107, 108. 

Edda, the, 380 n. 1. 

E-des'sa, 411. 

Edict, of Nantes, 554 ; revoked, 572 ; 
of Grace, 556. 

Education, Chinese, 69 ; Greek, 189; 
Roman, 325 ; at Sparta, 95. 

Edward, the Confessor, k. of Eng- 
land, 381, 397; I, 448, 449; II, 
450; III, 424.45°; VI, 530. 

Eg'bert, k. of Wessex, 339. 

Egmont, 543. 

Egypt, political histoiy, 14-20 ; civi- 
lization, 20-29 ; under the Ptole- 
mies, 158; Roman province, 273; 
-conquest of, by Saracens, 366 ; 
England in, 734. 

Elam, 33. 

Elba, 675. 

Elbe (elb ; Ger. pron. el'be), river, 
561. 

Electors, the Seven, of Germany, 
467. 

Elgin (eTgin), Lord, 167 n. 3. 

E'lis, description of, 72. 

Elizabeth, queen of England, reign, 
53 2 -S40. 

Elizabeth, tsaritsa, 613. 

Em-ped'o-cles, 181 n. 3. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 761 



England, origin of name, 339 ; 
Anglo-Saxon conquest, 339 ; Da- 
nish conquest, 380, 381 ; Nor- 
man conquest and rule, 396-400 ; 
under the houses of Plantagenet, 
Lancaster, and York, 444-455. 
See Table of Contents. 

Enlightened despotism, theory of, 

567- 

English colonies, under Elizabeth, 
539 ; under James I, 581 ; in Seven 
Years' War, 620-622 ; in American 
Revolution, 622 ; at close of nine- 
teenth century, 728-734. 

En'ni-us, poet, 321. 

E-pam-i-non'das, 147, 148. 

Eph'e-sus, early Ionian colony, 83. 

Eph-i-al'tes, Greek traitor, 120. 

Eph'ors, the, at Sparta, 94. 

Ep-ic-te'tus, the Stoic, 323. 

Ep-i-cu'rus, 186. 

E-pi'rus, district of, 71. 

E-ras'mus, Desiderius, 521. 

E-re'tri-a, 1 1 5. 

Eridu (a'ri-doo), city, 31. 

Erinnyes (e-rin'i-ez), the, 86 n. 1. 

Eritrea (a-re-tra'a), 735. 

E'ros, 86 n. 1. 

Eschenbach (esh'en-bach), Wolfram 
of, 470 n. 16. 

Essex, second earl of, 539 n. 3. 

Estates-General. See States-General. 

E-tru'ri-a, 195, 218. 

E-trus'cans, 197. 

Eu-boe'a, island, 74. 

Eu'clid, the mathematician, 187. 

Eugene of Savoy, Prince, 574. 

Eu'me-nes, k. of Pergamum, 242. 

Eumenides (u-men'i-dez), the, 86 
n. 1. 

Eu'pa-trids, the, at Athens, 107. 

Euphrates, valley of the, 30. 

Eu-rip'i-des, tragic poet, 176. 

Eu-ro'tas, river, 74. 

Euxine Sea (uk'sin), Greek colonies 
on, 100. 

Excommunication, effects of, 404. 

Eylau (i'lou), battle of, 666. 

Fabius Maximus, " the Delayer," 

237- 
Fabius, Quintus, 235. 
Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 587. 
Fallieres, Armand, 687 n. 4. 



False Decretals, the, 351 n. 7. 

Family, the Roman, 199. 

Fasces (fas'sez), the, 201, 211. 

Faure (for), Fe'lix, 687 n. 4. 

Fayum (fl-oom'), district of the, 17. 

Fenelon (fan-loh'), 576 n. 4. 

Ferdinand of Aragon, 464, 465. 

Ferdinand II, emp. H.R.E., 557. 

Fetiales. See Heralds. 

Feudalism, 383-392. 

Field of Cloth of Gold, 513 n. 1. 

Finns, the, 345. 

Fire, origin of its use, 4. 

Fire worshipers, 366 n. 7. 

Fisher, John, bishop of Rochester, 

526. _ 
Flaminian Way, 233. See Via 

Flaminia. 
Flam-i-ni'nus, Roman general, 242. 
Fla-min'i-us, Gaius, Roman general, 

237- 

Flavian Age, 285. 

Flodden Field, battle of, 523 n. 2. 

Florence, 436. 

For-mo'sa, 742. 

Forum, Roman, in time of the kings, 
207. 

France, under the direct line of the 
Capetians, 458-460; under the 
mediaeval Valois, 460-462. See 
Table of Contents. 

Franche-Comte(frohsh-koh-ta / ),572. 

Francis II, emp. H.R.E., makes 
Treaty of Campo Formio, 654 ; as 
Francis I, emp. of Austria, 665. 

Francis I, k. of France, 513, 514; 
II, 550, 551. 

Francis II, k. of Two Sicilies, 705. 

Francis Joseph, emp. of Austria, 
accession, 721 ; makes Peace of 
Villafranca, 704; of Prague, 713; 
popularity of, 719. 

Franciscans, order of the, 421. 

Franco-Prussian War, 686, 714. 

Franks, form first settlement in 
Gaul, 312; under the Merovin- 
gians, 338 ; their conversion, 342. 

Frederick I, Barbarossa, emp. 
H.R.E., in Third Crusade, 412; 
quarrel with Pope Alexander III, 
420. 

Frederick IV, k. of Denmark, 605. 

Frederick (III) I, k. of Prussia, 
609; II, the Great, 611-615. 



762 INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Frederick V, Elector Palatine, k. of 
Bohemia, 557 n. 2. 

Frederick the Wise, elector of Sax- 
ony, 502. 

Frederick William, Great Elector 
of Brandenburg, 609. 

Frederick William I, k. of Prussia, 
610; III, campaign of Jena, 666; 
IV, 712. 

Free Imperial Cities, 468. 

French and Indian War. See Seven 
Years' War. 

French colonies, under Louis XV, 
578 ; at close of nineteenth cen- 
tury, 735. 

Friedland (fret'lant), battle of, 666. 

Froissart (frwa-saV), 463. 

Furius Camillus, Marcus, dictator, 
219. 

Fusillades (fiis-e-yad'), 650. 

Future life, doctrine of, among the 
Egyptians, 23 ; among the Baby- 
lonians, 38; among the Hebrews, 
53- 

Ga'des, 57. 

Gaius Caesar. See Caligula. 
Galba, Roman emp., 284. 
Ga-le'ri-us, Roman emp., 299. 
GaHi-a Cis-al-pi'na, origin of name, 

195- 
Galton, quoted, 133 n. 6. 
Ga'ma, Vasco da, 489. 
Garibaldi (ga-re-bal'de), sketch of 

life, 703 ; in Sicily and Naples, 

705- 

Gas'cons, the, 374 n. 2. 

Gaul, conquest of, by Caesar, 264. 
See Gauls. 

Gauls, their invasion of Greece, 
160; early settlement in North 
Italy, 197; sack Rome, 218; 
Rome's war with, between First 
and Second Punic Wars, 233. 

Gau'ta-ma. See Buddha. 

Ge-dro'si-a, 154. 

Geiseric (gi'zer-ik), Vandal leader, 

3M- 
Ge'lo, tyrant of Syracuse, 119. 
Gen'o-a, 435. 
Gens (clan), the, among the Greeks, 

84 ; in early Rome, 200. 
George I, k. of England, 618 ; II, 

618; III, 618. 



Gerard (zha-rar'), Balthasar, 548. 

German Confederation, 709-713. 

German Empire, New, formed, 715; 
recent history of, 716, 717. 

German tribes. See Tetitons. 

Germany, in the Middle Ages, 
466-470. See Holy Roman Em- 
pire and German Empire, New. 

Ghent, Pacification of, 546. 

Ghibellines (gib'el-linz), the, 467. 

Ghiberti (ge-ber'te), sculptor, 483 
n. 2. 

Gibraltar, £75. 

Gideon, Hebrew judge, 49. 

Gilds, mediaeval, 432. 

Girga-mesh, Epic of, 39. 

Girondins (ji-ron'dinz), in Legisla- 
tive Assembly, 640 ; in Conven- 
tion, 645 ; execution of, 646. 

Gladiatorial combats, given by 
Augustus, 278 ; their suppres- 
sion, 308 ; attitude of Christians 
towards, 308 ; general description 
of the shows, 327-329. 

Gladiators, war of the, 259. 

Gladstone, William Ewart, 693, 694, 
697. 

Go-bel', 647. 

Godfrey of Bouillon (god'fri boo- 
yon'), 409, 410. 

Gordian knot, 152 n. 2. 

Gor'gi-as, 181 n. 4. 

Goths, Eastern. See Ostrogoths. 

Goths, Western. See Visigoths. 

Grac'chus, Gaius, 250. 

Gracchus, Tiberius, 250. 

Granada, conquest of, 464. 

Grand Alliance, of 1689, 573; of 
1701, 574. 

Grand Design of Henry IV, 555 n. 3. 

Gra-ni'cus, battle of, 152. 

Gratian, Roman emp., 305 n. 1, 306. 

Gravelotte (grav-lot'), battle of, 686. 

Great Britain, the name, 617. See 
England. 

Great Moguls, the, 428. 

Great Schism, the, 424. 

Great Wall, the Chinese, 70. 

Grecian games, influence of, 88. 

Greece, geography of, 71-75; since 
1864, 721 n. 3. 

Greek Church, the, 351. 

Greek Empire. See Eastern Em- 
pire. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 763 



Greeks, their legends, 77-83 ; in- 
heritance of, S4-91. See Hellenes. 

Greenland, discovered by the North- 
men, 380. 

Grevy (gra-ve'), 687 n. 4. 

Grotefend (gr5'te-fend)~, 37 n. 4. 

Grotius (gro'shi-us), Hugo, 542 n. 1. 

Guadalquivir (gua-dal-ke-veV), river, 

369- 

Guebers (ge'bers). See Fire wor- 
shipers. 

Guelphs (gwelfs), the, 467. 

Guillotine, the, 648* 

Guiscard (ges-kar'), Robeit, 396 n. 1. 

Guise (giiez), Francis, second duke 

of, 55 1- 
Guizot (ge-zo'), 684. 
Gunpowder, effects of use in war, 

390- . 

Gustavus II, Adolphus, k. of Swe- 
den, 558-560. 

Gutenberg (goo'ten-bero), John, 481. 

Gy-lip'pus, Spartan general, 142. 

Hades (ha'dez), 85. 

Hadrian, Roman emp., reign, 288. 

Hadrian Wall in Britain, 289. 

Hague (hag), The, Peace Confer- 
ence at, 750. 

Ha'lys, river, 59. 

Ha-mil'car Barca, Carthaginian gen- 
eral, 234. 

Hamites, 11. 

Hammurabi (ham-moo-ra'be), Baby- 
lonian king, 33 ; his code, 39. 

Hampden, John, 584. 

Hanging gardens of Babylon, 47 n. 1. 

Hannibal, 234-240. 

Hanover, House of, in England, 
618 n. 1. 

Hanseatic League, 433. 

Hapsburg, House of. See Austria, 
House of. 

Hargreaves (har'grevz), 624. 

Har-mo'di-us, Athenian tyrannicide, 
109. 

Harold, k. of England, 397, 398. 

Harun-al-Rashid (ha-roon'al- 
rash"-id), caliph, 368. 

Ha-rus'pi-ces, art of the, 204. 

Has'dru-bal, brother of Hannibal, 

239- 
Hasdrubal, son-in-law of Hamilcar, 

234- 



Hassan (ha'sen), 368 n. 8. 

Hastings, battle of, 398. 

He'be, 86 n. 1. 

Hebert (a-beY), 648. 

Hebrews, the, 49-53. 

Hegira (he-ji'ra or hej'i-ra), the, 364. 

Heidelberg (hi'del-bero), 573. 

Hel'l-con, Mount, 73. 

Hel'las, term defined, 71. 

Hel-le'nes, or Hellenes, 71, 74, 75. 

See Greeks. 
Hel'les-pont, the, 99. 
Heloi'se (a.-16-eV), pupil of Abelard, 

442. 
He'lots, the, at Sparta, 93. 
Helvetic Republic, formed, 655. 
Henry I, k. of England, 399 n. 3 ; 

II, 399, 445; V, 452; VII, 454> 

522; VIII, reign, 523-528. 
Henry IV, emp. H. R. E., 405; VI, 

4i3- 
Henry III, k. of France, 553 ; IV, 

marriage, 552 ; reign, 553-555. 
Henry of Bourbon, k. of Navarre, 

553- 

Henry, Prince, the Navigator, 487. 

He-phass'tus, 86. 

Hep'tarch-y, Saxon, 339. 

He'ra, 86. 

Her-a-cle'a, battle of, 224. 

Her'a-cles, 78. 

Her-a-clI'das, return of the, 82. 

Her-a-clT'tus, 180 n. 2. 

Her'a-clf'us, Eastern emp., reign, 

360. 
Heralds, College of, 205. 
Her-cu-la'ne-um, 286. 
Her'i-ot, 85, 387. 
Hermann. See Arminius. 
Her'mes, 86. 
Hermits, 345. 
Her'mus, river, 59. 
He-rod'o-tus, 176. 

Herzegovina (hert-se-go-ve'na), 723. 
He'si-od, 173. 
Hesse-Darmstadt (hes'darm'stat), 

714. 
Hes'ti-a, 86. 

Hi'e-ro II, tyrant of Syracuse, 229. 
Hieroglyphics, Egyptian, 21. 
Hil'de-brand. See Pope Gregory VII. 
Him'e-ra, battle of, 123 n. 6. 
Hip-par'chus, astronomer, 188. 
Hipparehus, Athenian tyrant, 109. 



764 INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Hip'pi-as, 109, in. 

Hip-poc'ra-tes, physician, 188. 

Hiram, k. of Tyre, 50. 

Hittites, the, 18. 

Hohenlinden, battle of, 659. 

Hohenstaufen (ho"en-stow'fen), 
Germany under, 470. 

Hohenzollern (ho'en-tsol-lern), 
House of, in Brandenburg, 609 ; 
in Prussia, 609-615. 

Holland. See Netherlands. 

Holstein (hol'stln), duchy of, 713. 

Holy Alliance, 681. 

Holy League of 1609, 557. 

Holy Office. See Inquisition. 

Holy Roman Empire, name attaches 
to Western Empire, 378; relations 
of, to the Papacy, 401, 420 ; re- 
sults for Germany of the renewal 
of the imperial authority, 466 ; end 
of, 665. 

Holy Synod, established in Russia, 
604. 

Homage, ceremony of, 384. 

Home Rule, Irish, 689 n. 1. 

Homer, 172. 

Homeric poems, 90, 172. 

Hong-kong', 731. 

Ho-no'ri-us, Roman emp., 307. 

Hoorn (horn), count of, 543. 

Horace, poet, 278, 321. 

Hor-ten'si-us, jurist, 322. 

Ho'rus, Egyptian deity, 23. 

Ho-sain', 368 n. 8. 

Hos'pi-tal-ers, order of the, 411. 

Hos-til'i-us, Tullus, k. of Rome, 206. 

Howard, John, 624 n. 8. 

Hubertsburg, Treaty of, 613. 

Hudson Bay territory, 575. 

Huguenots (hii'ge-nots), name, 550 
n. 2 ; wars, 550-556. 

Humanism, 476-485. See Renais- 
sance. 

Humbert I, k. of Italy, 706 n. 2. 

Hundred Years' War, 451-454; 
results for France, 460. 

Hungary, origin of kingdom, 426 ; 
under Maria Theresa, 611, 612; 
Revolution of 1848 in, 711 n. 1; 
in Austro-Hungarian monarchy, 
717-719. 

Huns, drive Goths across the 
Danube, 305 ; defeated at Cha- 
lons, 312. 



Huss, John, 469. 
Hussites, the, 469. 
Hyk'sos, the, 17. 
Hy-met'tus, Mount, 73. 

Iceland, settled from Norway, 380. 

Iconoclastic controversy, 350, 351. 

Ic-tT'nus, architect, 133. 

Il'i-os. See Trojan War. 

Illyrian Provinces, 668. 

Imperator, the title, 274. 

Incas, 493. 

Independents, English religious 
party (known at first as Separa- 
tists), in Civil War, 586, 588. 

India, early history, 65-67 ; Portu- 
guese in, 489; English in, 581, 
621, 622 ; French in, 622. 

Indians, American, origin of name, 
488. 

Indulgences, defined, 498 ; granting 
of, by Tetzel, 499 ; Luther's the- 
ses on, 499. 

Inquisition, the, in Languedoc, 417 ; 
in Spain, 465 ; procedure, 506 ; in 
Netherlands, 541-543. 

Interdict, effects of, 404. 

Interregnum, the, in German his- 
tory, 467. 

Investiture, contest respecting, 405. 

Iona (i-o'na or e-o'na), monastery, 

344- 

Ionia, cities of, reduced by Cyrus, 
112 ; revolt against Persians, 114. 

Ionian Islands, the, 74 ; annexed to 
France, 654 ; ceded to Greece, 
721 n. 3. 

Ionians, characteristics of, 76; set- 
tlements of, in Asia Minor, 82. 
See Ionia. 

Ip'sus, battle of (301 B.C.), 157 n. 1. 

Iran (e-ran'), plateau of, 59. 

Ireland, conversion of, 343 ; insur- 
rection of 1 64 1, 585 ; Cromwell 
in, 589 ; William III in, 599 ; legis- 
lative independence, 623 ; dises- 
tablishment of Church in, 697. 

Irene (I-re'ne or l-ren'), Eastern 
empress, 375. 

Ire'ton, 595. 

I'ris, 86 n. 1. 

Iron Crown of Lombards, 339. 

Isabella, queen of Castile, 464, 465. 

I-sae'us, Greek orator, 177 n. 3. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 765 



Fsis, 23. 

Islam. See Mohammedanism. 

Fsoc'ra-tes, Greek orator, 177 n. 3. 

Israel, kingdom of, 51. 

Is'sus, battle of, 152. 

Isthmian games, the, 88. 

Italian allies, status before the Social 
War, 253. See Social War. 

Italian city-republics, 434-436. 

Italians, branches of, 196. 

I-tal'i-ca. See Corfinium. 

Italy, divisions, 195; its early in- 
habitants, 196-198; united under 
Rome, 225 ; recovery of, by Jus- 
tinian, 336; no national govern- 
ment during Middle Ages, 471 ; 
Renaissance in, 475 ; since Con- 
gress of Vienna, 699-708. See 
Italian city-republics and Renais- 
sance. 

Ith'a-ca, 74. 

Ivan (e-v'an') III, the Great, Tsar, 
471. 

Jacobin Club, origin, 639 ; closed, 

6 5 i : 

Jacobites, support James II, 599. 
James I, k. of England, reign, 579— 

582 ; II, 596, 599. 
James IV, k. of Scotland, 523. 
Jamestown, 581. 
Jan'i-za-ries, the, 429. 
Ja'nus, Roman deity, 204, 278. 
Japan, awakening of, 741 ; war with 

China, 741 ; war with Russia, 743- 

745- 

Japanese, racial relationship, 10. 

Jason, 79. 

Jeffreys, Chief Justice, 596 n. 5. 

Jena (ya'na), battle of, 666. 

Jenghiz Khan (jen'gis-khan), 426. 

Jeph'thah, Hebrew hero, 49. 

Jerome of Prague, 469. 

Jerome Bonaparte, k. of Westphalia, 
667. 

Jerusalem, taken by Nebuchadnez- 
zar, 51 ; taken by Pompey, 262 ; by 
Titus, 285; Latin Kingdom of, 410. 

Jesuits, Society of the, 507. 

Jews, revolt of, in reign of the 
emp. Hadrian, 289^ expelled from 
Spain, 465; political disabilities 
removed in England, 696. See 
Jerusalem and Hebrews. 



Joan of Arc, 452, 453. 

John, k. of England, quarrel with 

Pope Innocent III, 421 ; forfeits 

lands in France, 445 ; grants 

Magna Carta, 446. 
John of Austria, Don, at Lepanto, 

517 ; in Netherlands, 546. 
Joseph Bonaparte, k. of Spain, 

668. 
Josephine, 669. 
Josephus, historian, 52. 
Jourdan (zhoor-doh'), campaign of 

1796, 653. 
Jovian, Roman emp., 304. 
Juan Ponce de Leon (pon-tha da la- 

on'), 492 n. 4. 
Judah, kingdom of, 51. 
Judgment of the Dead, in Egyptian 

theology, 26. 
Ju-gur'tha, war with Rome, 251. 
Julian the Apostate, reign, 303. 
Ju-li-a'nus, Did'i-us, 294. 
Jupiter, 203. 
Jits auxilii, of the plebian tribune, 

212; commercii, defined, 202; 

connubii, defined, 202. 
Justin Martyr, 290. 
Justinian, his reign, 358-360; his 

code, 359. 
Jutes, the, 339. 
Juvenal, satirist, 321. 

Kaaba (ka'ba or ka-a'ba), the, 362. 
Kant, Immanuel, quoted, 748. 
Ker-man', 366 n. 7. 
Khar-turn', 734. - 
Khedive (ka/dev"), 734. 
Khor-sa-bad', 42. 
Khufu. See Cheops. 
Kiau-chau (kyow-chow), 738. 
Kleber (kla-ber'), in Egypt, 656. 
Knox, John, 535. 
Konieh (ko'ne-e), 737. 
Koniggratz (ke'nig-grets), battle of, 

7i3- 

Ko'ran, the, 365. 

Ko-re'a, 742, 744, 745 n. 19. 

Koreish (k5-rish'), Arab clan, 363. 

Kosciuszko (kos-i-us'k5), 608. 

Kossuth (kosh'oot), Louis, 711 n. 1. 

Kremlin, the, 673. 

Krug'er, Paul, 733. 

Kublai Khan (kdbbTl khan), 428. 

Ku-ro-pat'kin, Russian general, 744. 



766 INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Lab'a-rum, the, 300. 

La Bruyere (la brii-yer'), 576 n. 4. 

Lac-e-dse'mon, 72. 

La-co'ni-a, geography of, 72 ; ravaged 

by Epaminondas, 148. 
Lafayette (la-fa-yet'), 635. 
Lancaster, House of. See Jioses, 

Wars of the. 
Langland, William, 456. 
Langton, Stephen, 421. 
Language, formation of, 7. 
Languedoc (lang'gwe-dok), 417. 
Langice d'Oc (lahg'dok"), French 

dialect, 462. 
Langue d'O'il (lang'dwel"), French 

dialect, 462. 
La-oc'o-on, the, 169. 
Lapps, the, 345. 
La'res, cult, 199. 
La Rochelle (la ro-shel'), Huguenot 

stronghold, 554; siege of, 555. 
Las Ca'sas, 495 n. 7. 
Latimer, bishop, 532. 
Latin colonies. See Colonies. 
Latin Empire of Constantinople, 

413, 414. 
Latin League, 198. See Latins. 
Latins, ethnic relationship, 197; 

throw off the Roman yoke, 210; 

revolt of Latin towns in 340 B.C., 

221; how treated by Rome after 

the Latin War, 222 ; political 

status of, 253. 
La'ti-um, 197. 
Laud, William, 583. 
Legion, Roman, 208. 
Legislative Assembly, French, 640- 

643- 

Leicester (les'ter) Abbey, 525. 
Leipzig (Hp'tsiG), battle of (18 13), 

674. 
Lem'nos, island, 74. 
Lenormant (leh-nor-moh'), quoted, 

58. 
Leo the Great, pope, turns Attila 

back, 313; intercedes for Rome 

with Geiseric, 314. 
Leo the Isaurian, 351. 
Leonardo da Vinci (la-o-nar'do da 

vin'che), 484. 
Le-on'i-das, k. of Sparta, 120. 
Leopold II, k. of the Belgians, 727 n.2. 
Leopold of Hohenzollern, offered 

Spanish crown, 714., 



Le-pan'to, battle of, 517. 
Lepidus, Marcus ^Emilius, the tri- 
umvir, 270, 272. 
Les'bos, island, 74. 
Leuc'tra, battle of, 146-148. 
Leuthen (loi'ten), battle of, 612. 
Lew'es, battle of, 447. 
Lewis I, the Pious, k. of the Franks, 

377- 

Lex Julia Municipalise 268 n. 11. 

Licinian laws, 219. 

Li-cin'i-us, Gaius, tribune, 219. 

Lictors, attendants of the Roman 
king, 201; consular, 210. 

Li-gu'ri-a, 195. 

Ligurian Republic, formed, 654 ; 
annexed to France, 662. 

Li'ris, river, 197. 

Literature, Egyptian, 22 ; Baby- 
lonian, 39; Assyrian, 45; Hebrew, 
51; Chinese, 69; Greek, 172-179; 
Roman, 320-322 ; Spanish, be- 
ginnings of, 465 ; German, begin- 
nings of, 470 ; French, beginnings 
of, 462 ; under Louis XIV, 576 ; 
in eighteenth century, 630 ; Eng- 
lish, later mediaeval period, 455— 
457 ; under Henry VIII, 529 ; un- 
der Elizabeth, 539 ; of the Puritan 
period, 594. 

Livingstone, David, 727. 

Livy, historian, 278, 322. 

Llewellyn (loo-eTin) III, Welsh 
prince, 448. 

Lol'lards, the, 457. 

Lombards, kingdom of the, 338 ; de- 
stroyed by Charles the Great, 374, 

Lombardy, ceded to Austria, 6S0 ; 
to Sardinia, 704. 

Long Walls at Athens, 127; their 
demolition by the Peloponnesians, 
144. 

Lorraine, part of, ceded to German 
Empire, 687. 

Lo-thair', emp. H.R.E., 377. 

Loubet (loo-Da'), 687 h. 4. 

Louis I, Prince of Conde (koh-da'), 

55 1 • 
Louis VII, k. of France, 412; IX, 
417; XI, 460; XIII, 555; XIV, 
reign, 569-577; XV, reign, 577; 
death, 631; XVI, 632, 639, 644; 
XVII (dauphin), 646; ' XVIII, 
accession, 675 ; reign, 683. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY J67 



Louis Bonaparte, k. of Holland, 

662 ; abdication, 669. 
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. See 

Napoleon III. 
Louis Philippe, k. of the French, 

684, 685. 
Louisiana, ceded to United States, 

663. 
Low Countries. See Netherlands, 

Belgium. 
Lo-y5Ta, Ignatius of, 507. 
Lii'beck, Peace of, 558. 
Lu-ca'ni-a, 195. 
Lucerne, Lion of, 641. 
Lu-cre'ti-us, poet, 321. 
Lu-cul'lus, Lucius Licinius, 262 n. 7. 
Lusitanians, 247. 
Luther, Martin, 499-504. 
Lutherans, 504. 

Lutter (loot'ter), battle of, 558 n. 3. 
Liitzen (lut'sen), battle of (1632), 

559; (1813), 675. 
Luxury, Roman, 329. 
Ly-ce'um, the, at Athens, 109. 
Ly-cur'gus, legend of, 93. 
Lydia, the land, 59 ; conquered by 

Cyrus the Great, 60. 
Ly-san'der, Spartan general, 143. 
Lys'i-as, Athenian orator, 177 n. 3. 

Mac'ca-bees, the, 51. 

Macedonia, under Philip II, 149; 
after Alexander's death, 157, 241, 
242. 

Macedonian War, First, 256 n. 6 ; 
Second, 262 n. 7 ; Third, 262 n. 7. 

Machiavelli (mak-e-a-veTle), Nicho- 
las, 436. 

MacMahon (mak-ma-on'), Marshal, 
687 n. 4. 

Madagascai", French in, 736. 

Mas-£e'nas, patron of literature, 278. 

Magdeburg (mag'de-bobi'G), 559. 

Magellan, Ferdinand, 490. 

Ma-gen'ta, battle of, 704. 

Magna Carta, 446. 

Magna Grascia, the name, 100; colo- 
nies of, 100. 

Mag-ne'si-a, battle of, 242. 

Ma'go, brother of Hannibal, 238. 

Magyars (mod'yorz"). See Hun- 
gary. 

Mainz (mints), 481. 

Mal-a-bar' coast, 489. 



Malplaquet (mal-pla-ka'), battle of, 

574- 

Man-chu'ri-a, Chinese province, oc- 
cupied by Russia, 739, 744. 

Man'e-tho, 15. 

Manlius, Marcus, 219. 

Manlius, Titus, consul, 222. 

Manorial system, the, 386, 387. 

Man-ti-ne'a, battle of (362 B.C.), 148. 

Mar'a-thon, battle of, 116. 

Mar-celTus, Marcus Claudius, 239. 

Marches, the, union with Sardinia, 

7°5- 

Marco Po'lo, mentioned, 419; at 
Mongol court, 428. 

Mar-do'ni-us, Persian general, 115, 
122. 

Mar'duk, Babylonian deity, 39. 

Ma-ren'go, battle of, 659. 

Margaret, Duchess of Parma, 542. 

Margaret of Denmark, 474. 

Maria Theresa (ma-re'a te-re'sa), 
queen of Hungary, 607, 611, 612. 

Marie Antoinette (marl an-toi-net'), 
632, 646. 

Marie Louise, of Austria, 669. 

Ma'ri-us, Gaius, in Jugurthine War, 
252 ; destroys the Cimbri and 
Teutones, 252 ; is proscribed, 256 ; 
massacres the aristocrats, 256. 

Marlborough, Duke of, 574. 

Mars, Roman god of war, 203. 

Marseillais (mar-se-lya'), the six hun- 
dred, 642. 

Marseillaise (mar-se-lyaz'), the, 642. 

Marsic War. See Social War. 

Mary I, queen of England, 531 ; II, 

598. 
Mary Stuart, queen of Scots, 535. 
Mas-i-nis'sa, k. of Numidia, 244. 
Mas-saTi-a founded, 101. 
Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, 405. 
Maurice, stadtholder, 548. 
Max-im'i-an, Roman emp., 298. 
Max-i-mil'ian I, emp. H.R.E., 470. 
Maz'a-rin, French minister, 570. 
Mazzini (mat-se'ne), Joseph, 701. 
Mec'ca, 362, 365. 
Medes, the, 59. 
Medici (med'e-che), Cos'i-mo de\ 

436 n. 2 ; Lorenzo de', 436 n. 2. 
Medicine, science of, among the 

Egyptians, 28 ; among the Greeks, 



768 INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Medina (me-de'na), 364. 
Melanchthon (me-langk'thon), 504 

n. 5. 
Memphis, in Egypt, 15. 
Mencius (men'shi-us), Chinese sage, 

68. 
Men-e-la'us, 80. 

Menelik, k. of Abyssinia, 735 n. 13. 
Me-neph tha, 19. 
Me'nes, 15. 

Merovingians, Franks under, 338. 
Mer'o-wig, 338 n. 1. 
Mesopotamia, the name, 30 n. 1. 
Mes-sa'na, Greek colony, 97. 
Mes-se'ni-anWars, First and Second, 

96. 
Metaurus, i - iver, battle of the, 239. 
Methodists, rise of, 619; demand 

religious equality, 695. 
Metric system, 647. 
Met'ter-nich, Prince, 681, 700, 711. 
Meuse (mfiz), river, 377. 
Mexico, conquest by Spain, 492. 
Michael Angelo, 484. 
Mi-lan' Decree, 667. 
Ml-le'tus, colonies of, in Euxine 

region, 100; fall of, 114. 
Mil-ti'a-des, 116. 
Milton, John, 594. 
Milvian Bridge, battle at, 300. 
Min'me-sing'ers, 470. 
Mi'nos, k. of Crete, 78, 79. 
Min'o-taur, the, 78. 
Mir, the Russian, 724. 
Mirabeau (me-r'a-b5'), 634, 635. 
Missolonghi (mis-so-long'ge), 720 

n. 1. 
Mith-ra-da'tes VI, the Great, k. of 

Pontus, 255, 256, 262. 
Mithradatic War, First, 262 n. 7 ; 

Second, 262 n. 7; Third, 262 n. 7. 
M5'de-na, 705. 
Mce'ris, Lake, 17. 
Mohammed, 363-365. 
Mohammed II, sultan of the Otto- 
mans, 429. 
Mohammedanism, rise of, 362-37 1 ; 

under earlier caliphs, 369 ; its law 

system, 369. 
Mol-da'vi-a, partial independence of, 

721 ; in Rumania, 723 n. 5. 
Moliere (mo-lyer'), 576. 
Molt'ke, Von, 713 n. 3. 
Mo-luc'cas, the, 489, 490. 



Monasteries, suppression of, in Eng- 
land, 527. 

Monasticism, 345-347. 

Mongols, their conquests, 426-428. 

Monk, George, 593. ' 

Monks. See Mo7iasticism. 

Montcalm (mont-kam'), 621. 

Monte Cassino (mon'ta. kas-se'no), 
monastery, 346. 

Montenegro (mon-te-na'gro), 723 

n- 5- 
Montesquieu (mori-tes-kye'), 630 

n. 2. 
Mon-te-zu'ma, 493. 
Mo'ntfort, Simon de, leader of the 

Albigensian crusade, 417; the 

English earl, 447. 
More, Sir Thomas, humanist, 521 ; 

death, 526; his Utopia, 529. 
Moreau (m5-r5'), campaign of, 653. 
Mor-gar'ten, battle of, 469 n. 15. 
Moriscos, the, 464 ; under Philip II, 

517 ; expulsion of, 518. 
Morocco, 728 n. 3. 
Morton, Cardinal, 522. 
Moscow (mos'ko wmos'kow), 673. 
Moses, Hebrew lawgiver, 49. 
Mo'sul, 44. 

Mountainists, the, 643. 
Muk-den', battle of, 745 n. 17. 
Mun'da, battle of, 267 n. 10. 
Municipal Reform Act, 692. 
Municipal system, Roman, 222 n. 2 ; 

the Lex Julia Municipalis, 268 

n. 11. See Municipia. 
Mu-ni-cip'i-a, Roman, 222. 
Miinzer (munt'ser), 503. 
Murat (mu-ra'), Joachim, 668. 
Mus'co-vy, 471. 
Mutiny Bill, 599 n. 6. 
Myc'a-le, battle of, 122. 
My-ce'nae, 72, 82 n. 3. 
Mycenaean Age, 72 n. 1. 
My'lae, naval battle near, 229. 
Myt-i-le'ne, revolt of, 138. 

Nab-6-nI'dus, k. of Babylon, 48. 

Nab-o-po-las'sar, 47. 

Nse'vi-us, poet, 321. 

Nafels (na'fels), battle of, 469 n. 15. 

Nantes (nants ; Fr. pron. noht), Edict 

of, 554; revocation of, 572. 
Naples, kingdom of, founded by 

Normans, 396 n. 1 ; laid claim to 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 769 



by Charles VIII, 461 ; becomes 
part of the Kingdom of Italy, 

7°5- 

Napoleon I, Bonaparte, guards Con- 
vention, 651 ; campaign in Italy, 
653 ; campaign in Egypt, 654 ; 
overthrows Directory, 656; as 
Consul and Emperor, 658-675 ; 
II (k. of Rome), bom, 669; III, 
685, 686, 704. 

Nar'ses, 336. 

Nar'va, battle of, 605. 

Naseby (naz'bi), battle of, 587. 

Na-tal", 733. 

National Guards, French, organized, 
636. 

Nau'cra-tis, founded, 101. 

Nax'os, secedes from the Delian 
League, 126. 

Ne-'ar'chus, Alexander's admiral, 

Neb-u-chad-nez'zar II, 47. 

Ne'eho II, 19. 

Neck'er, French minister, 632, 636. 

Nelson, Horatio, at battle of the 
Nile, 655 ; at Trafalgar, 666. 

Ne'me-a, 88. 

Nemean games, the, 88. 

Nem'e-sis, 86 n. 1. 

Nemesis, doctrine of, in Greek 
tragedy, 175. 

Neolithic Age, 3. 

Neoplatonism, 186. 

Nero, Roman emp., 283. 

Nerva, Roman emp., 287. 

Netherlands, the, 541-549 ; inde- 
pendent of Holy Roman Empire, 
561 ; Batavian Republic (created 
in 1795), 662; kingdom of Hol- 
land, 662 ; annexed to France, 
669 ; kingdom of, formed, 680. 
See Belgium. 

New Learning. See Humanis7?i. 

" New Model" army, formed, 587. 

Ney (na), Marshal, 676. 

Nibelungenlied (ne // bel-ung'en-let / ), 
470. 

Ni-cse'a, church council at, 302. 

Nice (nes), 704. 

Nicholas I, Tsar, 720; II, 725. 

Nic'i-as, Athenian general, 142. 

Nicias, Peace of, 140. 

Nika (ne'ka) riot, the, 359. 

Nile, the, 14. 



Nimeguen (nim'a-gen), Treaty of, 

57i- 

Nin'e-veh, 43, 45. 

Nippur (nip-poor'), 35. 

No'gi, Japanese general, 745 n. 16. 

Normandy, in French history, 382. 

Normans, at home, 382 ; in Italy 
and Sicily, 396 n. 1 ; in England, 
396-400. See Northmen. 

North German Confederation, 713- 

715- 

Northmen, 379-382. See Scandina- 
vians. 

Norway, 680 n. 1. See Calmar, 
Union of. 

Notables, Assembly of, 632. 

Notre Dame (no'tr dam), Paris, 648. 

Nova Scotia ceded to England, 575. 

Noyades (nwa-yad'), 650. 

Nu-man'ti-a, destruction of, 246. 

Nystad (nu'stad), Peace of, 606. 

Octavius, Gaius, opposes Antony, 
270; enters the Second Trium- 
virate, 270 ; at the battle of Ac- 
tium, 272 ; his reign, 274-279. 

Octavius, Gnasus, consul, 257. 

O-do-a'cer, 315. 

O-dys'seus, 74, 80. 

Od'ys-sey. See Homeric poems. 

Oktai (ok'tl), Mongol conqueror, 

427-_ 
Old Sa'rum, 691. 
O-lym'pi-a, location of, 72; temple 

of Zeus Olympius at, 164. 
O-lym'pi-ad, First, 88. 
Olympian Council, the, 86. 
Olympian games, the, 87 ; revival 

of, 89 n. 4 ; influence upon Greek 

sculpture, 89, 166. 
O-lym'pus, Mount, 73. 
O'mar, caliph, 366 n. 6. 
Ommeiades (om-ma'yadz), dynasty 

of the, 368 n. 8. 
O-pim'i-us, Lucius, consul, 251. 
Opium War, 731. 
Oracles among the Greeks, 86, 87. 

See Delphian oracle. 
Orange Free State, 732. 
Orange River Colony, 733. 
Oratory, Greek, 177; Roman, 321. 
Ordeals, among the Teutons, 355. 
Or'le-ans (Fr. pron. or-la-oh'), relief 

of, by Joan of Arc, 453. 



770 INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Orleans, Philippe, Duke of, regent, 

577- 

Or'mazd, 63. 

O-si'ris, Egyptian deity, 23. 

Os'sa, Mount, 73. 

Ostracism, no. 

Ostrogoths, cross the Danube, 306 ; 
reduced to obedience by Theo- 
dosius, 306 ; Kingdom of the, 336. 

Oth-man', caliph, 366 n. 6. 

Othman I, Ottoman prince, 428 n. 1. 

O'tho, Roman emp., 284. 

Otto, k. of Greece, 721. 

Otto I, the Great, restores the Em- 
pire, 466. 

Ottomans. See Turks. 

Ou"den-ar'de, battle of, 574. 

Ov'id, poet, 278, 321. 

Oxenstiern (oks'en-stem), 560. 

O-ya'ma, Field Marshal, 744. 

Pac-to'lus, river, 59. 

Pa'dus. See Po. 

Paganus, how the term acquired 
religious significance, 306. 

Paine, Thomas, 643. 

Painting, Greek, 170. 

Palatinate, War of the, 573. 

Para-tine (tin) hill, 207. 

Paleolithic Age, 2. 

Palmyra, fall of, 296. 

Pamirs (pa-merz'), 739. 

Pantheon, the, 317. 

Papacy, claims of primacy by the 
Roman bishops, 348 ; circum- 
stances that favored growth, 
349-352 ; origin of its temporal 
authority, 373 ; relations of, to 
the H.R.E., 401 ; Concordat of 
Worms, 406 ; removal of papal 
seat to Avignon, 423 ; the Great 
Schism, 424 ; end of temporal 
power, 706 ; relations with Italian 
government, 707 ; infallibility of, 
707 n. 3. See Popes. 

Pa-pin'i-an, jurist, 294. 

Papyrus paper, 22 n. 6. 

Par'a-his, Athenian state ship, 143. 

Paris, Peace of (1763), 613, 622; 
(1783), 623; (1814), 675 n. 6; 
(1815), 677 n. 9; (1856), 722. 

Parliament, English, creation of 
House of Commons, 447 ; Model 
Parliament, 448 n. 4 ; effects upon, 



of Hundred Years' War, 454 ; the 
Long Parliament, 585, 590; the 
Little Parliament, 591 ; Conven- 
tion, 597 ; union of English and 
Scotch Parliaments, 617. 

Parma, Alexander, Duke of, 546. 

Par-nas'sus, Mount, 73. 

Parrhasius (par-ra/shi-us), Greek 
painter, 171. 

Par'sees, the. See Fire Worshipers. 

Parsifal (par'se-fal), poem of, 470. 

Parthenon, the, 131 ; treasure in, 
163 n. 1; description of, 164; 
sculptures of, 167 n. 3. 

Par"the-no-pe / an Republic, 655, 656. 

Pascal, 576 n. 4. 

Pa' ter fa-mil' i-as, power of, 199. 

Patricians, term explained, 202 ; in 
early Rome, 202. 

Patricius (pa-trish'ius). See St. 
Patrick. 

Pau'lus Lu'cius ^E-mil'i-us, consul, 

237- 

Paulus, Lucius ^Emilius, son of pre- 
ceding, 242. 

Pau-sa'ni-as, his treason, 125. 

Pax Rom ana. See Roman Peace. 

Peace Conference at The Hague, 

75°- 

Peasants' Revolt, in England, 457 
n. 8 ; in Germany, 503. 

Pe-king', siege of embassies at, 743. 

Pe'li-on, Mount, y^- 

Pe-lop'i-das, liberates Thebes, 147. 

Pel-o-pon-ne'sian War, 135-144. 

Pel-o-pon-ne'sus, the name, 71 ; con- 
quered by the Dorians, 82. 

Pe'lops, 71. 

Pe-na'tes, Roman household gods, 
199; worship interdicted, 306. 

Pe-ne'us, river, 74. 

Pen-tel'i-cus, Mount, 73. 

Perdiccas, regent, 157. 

Per'ga-mum (or Pergamus), center 
of Hellenistic culture, 158 n. 3. 

Per-i-an'der, tyrant of Corinth, 103. 

Per'i-cles, 127-133; funeral oration 
of, 136; his death, 138. 

Per-i-ce'ci, the, in Laconia, 93. 

Per-sep'o-lis, structures at, 64 ; de- 
stroyed by Alexander, 1 54. 

Perseus, k. of Macedonia, 242. 

Persia, conquest of, by Saracens, 
366. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 771 



Persian Empire, political history, 
59-62 ; nature of government, 62 , 

' wars with Greece, 1 12-123; con " 
quered by Alexander the Great, 

I 5 2 ~ I 54- 

Per'si-us, poet, 321. 

Peru, Spanish conquest of, 493. 

Peter I, the Great, Tsar, 601-606; 

III, 613. 

Peter the Hermit, 408, 410 n. 2. 
Petition of Right, 582. 
Petrarch, as a humanist, 477. 
Phalanx, Macedonian, 147, 149. 
Phar'na-ces, defeated by Caesar, 266. 
Pha'ros, the, at Alexandria, 159. 
Phar'sa-lus, battle of, 266. 
Phei'don, k. of Argos, 104. 
Phid'i-as, his masterpieces, 167. 
Phi-dip'pi-des, Greek runner, 116. 
Philaa, island, 29. 

Philip II, k. of Spain, reign, 516— 
518; III, expels Moriscos, 518; 

IV, 571 ; V, 574. 

Philip II, Augustus, k. of France, in 
Third Crusade, 412 ; IV, the Fair, 
his quarrel with Pope Boniface 
VIII, 423; summons the commons 
to the National Assembly, 459. 

Philip II, k. of Macedon, 149-151. 

Phi-lip'pi, battle at, 271. 

Philippines, discovered, 490 ; United 
States in, 740 n. 15. 

Phi'lo, 52, 186. 

Phocians, in Second Sacred War, 
150. 

Pho'cis, district of Greece, 71. 

Phce'bus. See Apollo. 

Phce-nic'i-a, 54. 

Phoenicians, 54-58. 

Piacenza (pe-a-chen'za), Church 
Council at, 408. 

Pi-ce'num, 195. 

Piedmont. See Sardinia. 

Pilgrim Fathers, 581. 

Pindar, 173. 

Pippin II, k. of the Franks, 372, 373. 

Pi-rae'us, the, fortified by Themis- 
tocles, 124; dismantled by the 
Peloponnesians, 144. 

Pirates, in the Mediterranean, 260. 

Pisa (pe'za), Church Council of, 
425- 

Pi-sis'tra-tus, tyrant of Athens, 108. 

Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 620. 



Pitt, William, opposition to Napo- 
leon, 664. 

Pi-zar'ro, Francisco, 494. 

Plan-tag'e-net, House of, 445. 

Plassey, battle of, 621. 

Platae'a, city, 139 ; battle of, 122. 

Plato, life and works, 183. 

Plautus, dramatist, 321. 

Plebeian assembly. See Concilium 
tributum plebis. 

Plebeians (ple-be'yans), their status 
in early Rome, 203 ; significance 
to them of the Servian reforms, 
209; first secession, 210; second 
secession, 215; marriage with 
patricians made legal, 216 ; secure 
admission to the consulship, 219; 
to the dictatorship and other of- 
fices, 220 n. 5. 

Pleb-is-ci'ta, 216. 

Pliny the Elder, 286, 323. 

Pliny the Younger, 288. 

Plo-ti'nus, 186. 

Plu'tarch, 179. 

Po, river, 196. 

Poitiers (poi-terz'), battle of (1356), 
451 n. 6. 

Poland, partitions of, 607, 608 ; un- 
der Napoleon, 667 ; Russian king- 
dom of, 680. 

Pol-len'ti-a, battle at, 308. 

Poltava (pol-ta'va), battle of, 605. 

Po-lyb'i-us historian, 179. 

Pol'y-carp, Church Father, 290. 

Po-lyc'ra-tes, tyrant of Samos, 103. 

Pol-yg-no'tus, painter, 170. 

Po-lyx'e-na, daughter of Priam, 170. 

Pom-e-ra/ni-a, 561. 

Pompadour (pon-pa-dobr'), Madame 
de, 578. 

Pompeii (pom-pe'yi or pom-pa'yee) 
destroyed, 286. 

Pompey, Gnae'us, the Great, 261, 
263, 265, 266. 

Pompey, Gnasus, son of the pre- 
ceding, 267 n. 10. 

Pompey, Sextus, 267 n. 10. 

Pontifex Maximus, 205. 

Pontiffs, College of, 205. 

Pontus, state in Asia Minor, 157 n. 2. 

Popes : Gregory I, 342 ; Leo I, the 
Great, 348 ; Nicholas I, 348 ; 
Stephen II, 373; Leo III, 374; 
Gregory VII, 402-405 ; Urban II, 



772 INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



408; Innocent III, 417, 420; 
Alexander III, 420; Boniface 
VIII, 422; Alexander V, 425; 
Martin V, 425; Julius II, 480; 
Leo X, 480 ; Alexander VI, 489 ; 
Leo X, 480; Clement VII, 525; 
Pius V, 536 ; Gregory XIII, 553 ; 
Sixtus V, 537 ; Pius VII, at 
Napoleon's coronation, 662 ; pris- 
oner, 669; Pius IX, 707 n. 4 ; 
Leo XIII, 707 n. 4 ; Pius X, 707 
n. 4. See Papacy. 

Popish Plot, the, 596. 

Port Arthur, ceded to Japan, 742 ; 
leased to Russia, 744 ; siege of, 

745- 

Porto Rico, 740 n. 15. 

Portsmouth, Peace of, 745. 

Portugal, kingdom of, its begin- 
nings, 416; French invasion of, 
667. 

Portuguese colonies in India, 489. 

Po-sei'don, 86. 

Potato introduced into Europe, 539. 

Pot-i-dae'a, revolt of, against Athens, 

135- . 

Praetorian guard, corps created by 
Augustus, 281 n. 1 ; disbanded by 
S. Severus, 294. 

Prae'tors, 210, 219 n. 4. 

Pragmatic Sanction, 611. 

Prague (prag), Treaty of (1866), 713. 

Prax-it'e-les, 168. 

Pre'fec-tures, subdivisions of the 
later Roman Empire, 303. 

Pressburg (pres'borG), 664 n. 3. 

Pride's Purge, 588. 

Prime Minister, origin of, in Eng- 
land, 618. 

Printing, invention of, 480. 

Prod'i-cus, 181 n. 4. 

Pro-pon'tis, 99. 

Prop-y-lse'a, the, 131. 

Pro-tag'o-ras, 181 n. 4. 

Protectorate in England, 591—593. 

Protestants, origin of name, 503 ; 
divisions among, 504. 

Protestation, the Great, 579-581. 

Provencal (pro'vah'sal") speech, 462. 

Provence (pro'vohs"), 461. 

Provinces, first Roman, 232 ; gov- 
ernment of, reformed by Augus- 
tus, 270 ; condition of, under the 
Antonines, 291-293. 



Prussia, foundations of, laid by 
Teutonic knights, 417 ; under 
the Great Elector, 609 ; becomes 
a kingdom, 609 ; in eighteenth 
century, 610-615; regeneration 
of, 671-673; since 1815, 709- 
717. 

Psam-met'i-ehus I, 19. 

Ptol'e-my, Claudius, astronomer, 
187. 

Ptolemy I, Soter, 158; II, Philadel- 
phus, 159. 

Public lands, Roman, 249. 

Public Safety, Committee of, first, 
644 ; second or Great, 646. 

Punic War, First, 227-232 ; Second, 
235-241 ; Third, 244-246. 

Punjab (poon-jab'), the, 61. 

Puritans, under Elizabeth, 534 ; rule 

of, 5 86 -S95- 
Pyd'na, battle of, 242. 
Py'los, 139. 
Pym, John, 586. 
Pyramids, the, 15, 16; as tombs, 

25 ; battle of the, 655. 
Pyr'rhus, 224. 
Py-thag'o-ras, 180. 
Pyth'i-a, the, 87. 
Pythian games, 88. 

Quebec, battle of, 621. 
Quinqueremes (kwin'kwe-rems), first 

fleet of, built by the Romans, 

229 n. 3. _ 
Quito (ke'to), 494. 

Races of mankind, 9-13. 
Racine (ra-sen'), 576. 
Radagaisus (rad-a-ga/sus), 309 n. 2. 
Raleigh (ra/li), Sir Walter, 539,581. 
Ra-me'ses II, 18 ; mummy of, 24. 
Ramillies (ra-me-ye'), battle of, 574. 
Raphael (raf'a-el), 484. 
Rastadt, Treaty of, 575. 
Ravaillac (r'a-va-yak'), 555. 
Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, 

'409; VI, 417; VII, 417. 
Reform Bill, English, of 1832, 690- 

692; of 1867, 693; of 1884, 693. 
Reformation, 497-507 ; in England, 

520-540; in France, 550. 
Reg'u-lus, A-til'i-us, Roman general, 

_2 3 o. 
Re-ho-bo'am, 50. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 773 



Renaissance (re-na/sans"), the, 475— 
485. See Humanism. 

Restoration, English, 593. 

Reuchlin (roich-leri' or roich'lin), 
humanist, 482. 

Revival of Learning. See Renais- 
sance. 

Revolution, Puritan, 586-595 ; of 
1688,597; industrial, 624 ; Amer- 
ican, 622; French, of 1789, 627- 
657; of July, 1830, 683; of Feb- 
ruary, 1848, 684 ; Belgian, of 1830, 
684; Italian, of 1820, 700; of 
1830, 700; of 1848, 702. 

Revolutionary Tribunal, French, 
established, 644 ; work of, 649. 

Rheims (remz), 453. 

Rhodes, island, 74 ; center of Hel- 
lenistic culture, 1 57 n. 2 ; school 
of sculpture at, 169. 

Rhodes, Cecil, 733. 

Richard I, k. of England, 412, 413; 
III, 454. 

Richelieu (resh-lye'), Cardinal, 555, 
556. 

Ridley, 532. 

Rienzi (re-en'ze), tribune of Rome, 
472. 

Rights, English Bill of, 598. 

Rimini (re'me-ne), 373. 

Robert the Magnificent, Duke of 
Normandy, 409. 

Robespierre (ro-bes-pyer'), in Con- 
vention, 643 ; in Committee of 
Public Safety, 646-650 ; death, 
650. 

Rois faineants (rwa fa-na-oh'), 338. 

Rojestvensky, Russian admiral, 745 
n. 18. 

Roland (ro-lorV), Madame, 646. 

Ro'land, paladin, 374 n. 2. 

Rollo, Scandinavian chief, 381. 

Romagna (ro-man'ya), the, 705. 

Roman colonies. See Colonies. 

Roman Empire, definitely estab- 
lished by Augustus, 274-277 ; 
greatest extent under Trajan, 
288 ; its final division, 307 ; fall 
of the, in the West, 315; restored 
by Charlemagne, 374 ; renewed 
by Otto the Great, 378. See 
Eastern Empire and Holy Roman 
Empire. 

Roman law, 324, 357. 



Roman Peace (Rax Romano), 225. 

Roman roads, 223, 226. 

Romance languages, 354. 

Romance nations, 353. 

Ro-ma'noff or Ro-ma'nov, House 
of, 601. 

Rome, early society and govern- 
ment, 199-203; under the kings, 
206-209 ; sacked by the Gauls, 
218; compared with Carthage, 
227 ; ransom of, by Alaric, 309 ; 
sacked by Alaric, 310; by the 
Vandals, 313; capital of Italy, 
706. 

Rom'u-lus, k. of Rome, 206. 

Romulus Augustulus, last emperor 
of the West, 315. 

Roncesvalles (ron-se-val'les ; Sp. 
ron-thes-varyes), Pass of, 374 n. 2. 

Roses, Wars of the, 454. 

Rosetta Stone, the, 21. 

Ross'b'ach, battle of, 612. 

Ros'tra, 372 ; origin of name, 207. 

Rouen (rbb-on'), 381. 

Rouget de Lisle (roo-zha,' de lei), 
642 n. 8. 

Roundheads, 586. 

Rousseau (rob-so'), 631. 

Rubicon, river, 196; crossed by 
Caesar, 266. 

Rumania or Roumania (roo-ma'-ni-a), 

288; 723 n. 5- 

Rumelia or Roumelia (roo-me'-li-a), 
Eastern, 723 n. 5. 

Runnymede (riin'i-med), 446. 

Ru'rik, Scandinavian chief, 380, 471. 

Russia, introduction of Christianity 
into, 345 n. 2 ; the Mongol inva- 
sion, 471 ; rise of Muscovy, 471 ; 
under Peter the Great, 601-606; 
under Catherine the Great, 606- 
608 ; since French Revolution, 
720-725; Asiatic expansion of, 

738- 

Russo-Japanese War, 743-745 ; in- 
fluence upon Liberal movement 
in Russia, 725. 

Russo-Turkish War, of 1828-1829, 
720; of 1877-1878, 722. 

Rys'wick, Treaty of, 573. 

Sabbath, Babylonian rest day, 41 ; 
adopted as day of rest by Con- 
stantine, 302. 



774 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Sacred War, First, 90; Second, 150. 
Sadowa (sa'd5-v'a), battle of, 713. 
Saghalien (sa-ga-len'), island, 745 

n. 20. 
Sa-gun'tum, taken by Hannibal, 

2 35- 
St. Antony, 345. 
St. Augustine, Aurelius, 324. 
St. Bartholomew's Day, massacre of, 

551-553- 

St. Benedict, 346. 

St. Ber'nard, preaches crusade, 411. 

St. Ber'nard, Little, pass, 236. 

St. Boniface (bon'e-fass). See Win- 
frid. 

St. Co-lum'ba, 344. 

St. Dom'i-nic, 421. 

St. Francis, 421. 

St. Jerome, 323. 

St. John, Knights of. See Hos- 
pitalers. 

St. Patrick, 343. 

St. Peter, 284, 348. 

St. Peter's, Rome, 499. 

St. Petersburg, founded, 605. 

St. Sim'e-on Sty-H'tes, 345. 

Sal-a-din, 412, 413. 

Sara-mis, battle of, 122. 

Salisbury, gemot of, 398. 

Sallust, historian, 322. 

Samaria, captured by Sargon II, 42, 

5 1 - 

Samnite War, First, 221 ; Second, 

223 ; Third, 223. 
Sa'mos, island, 74. 
Sappho (saf'fo), 173. 
Sar'a-cus, k. of Nineveh, 43. 
Sardinia, with Corsica, made a 

Roman province, 233 ; kingdom 

of, in Crimean War, 703; war 

with Austria, 704 ; annexations of 

territory, 705 ; becomes kingdom 

of Italy, 705. 
Sar'dis, capital of Lydia, 60, 114. 
Sar'gon, I, 32 ; II, 42. 
Sat-tir-na' li-a, 206. 
Saul, k. of the Hebrews, 49. 
Sa-vo-na-ro'la, Girolamo (je-ro'la- 

mo), 473- 
Saxony, becomes a kingdom, 667 

n. 4. 
Scandinavians, conversion of, 344 ; 

aspirates and colonizers, 379-382. 

See Cahnar, Union of. 



Scar-a-bas'i, Egyptian, 28. 
Schleswig (shlas'viG) or Sleswick, 

duchy of, 713. 
Schmalkaldic League, 514. 
Schoolmen, 441-443. 
Schwyz (shwits), 469. 
Scipio, Publius Cornelius, engages 

Hannibal, 236. 
Scipio, Publius Cornelius (Africa- 

nus Major), defeats Hannibal at 

Zama, 240. 
Scipio, Publius Cornelius ^milia- 

nus (Africanus Minor), 246. 
Scone (skbon), Stone of, 449. 
Scotland, wars with England, 449 ; 

union of Scottish and English 

crowns, 579 ; of their parliaments, 

617. 
Scriptorium, 347. 
Sculpture, Greek, 166-169. 
Sedan (se-doh), battle of, 686. 
Seine (san), river, 381. 
Se-ja'nus, 281. 

Se-leu'ci-dae, kingdom of the, 158. 
Se-leu'cus Ni-ca'tor, 158. 
Self-denying ordinance, 587. 
Sempach (sem'pak), battle of, 469 

n. 15. 
Sem-pro'ni-us, Tiberius, consul, 236. 
Senate, Roman, under the kings, 

201 ; number senators reduced to 

six hundred by Augustus, 276 ; 

admission to, of Gauls, 283. 
Sen'e-ca, moralist, Nero's tutor, 284 ; 

his teachings, 323. 
Sen-e-gal, 736. 
Sen-naeh/e-rib, 43. 
Separatists, 535. 
Sepoy Mutiny, 731. 
Sep'tu-a-gint, the, 179. 
Serfs, under feudal system, 386 ; 

Russia emancipates, 724. 
Ser-ve'tus, 507. 

Servia, independence of, 723 n. 5. 
Servile War, First, 248 ; Second, 

249 n. 1. 
Servius Tullius, builds walls of 

Rome, 206 ; his reforms, 207-209. 
Sesostris. See Rameses II. 
Se'ti I, 18. 

Se-vas'to-p5l, siege of, 722. 
Seven Hills, the, 206. 
Seven Sages, the 180. 
Seven Weeks' War, 713. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 775 



Seven Years' War, 612, 620. 
Se-ve'rus, Septimius, Roman emp., 

reign, 294. 
Sevigne (sa-ven-ya'), Madame de, 

576 n. 4. 
Seville (sev'il), 367. 
She'ol, the Hebrew underworld, 53. 
Shepherd Kings. See Hyksos. 
Shiahs (she'az), Moslem sect, 368 

n. 8. 
Sib'yl-line Books, 204 ; prophecy in, 

233 ; burned, 257. 
Sicilian expedition, the, 141. 
Sicily, Greek colonies in, 101 ; at 

the beginning of the First Punic 

War, 228 ; becomes a Roman 

province, 232. 
Sidon, 54. 

Sieyes (se-a-yas'), 636. 
Si-le'si-a, seized by Frederick the 

Great, 611. 
Sl-mon'i-des of Ceos, lyric poet, 

*73- 

Sim'o-ny, 403. 

Siraj-ud-Daula (se-raj'ood-dow'la), 
621 n. 6. 

Siwah (see'wa), oasis of, 153. 

Slave trade, African, beginning of 
the, 495 n. 7 ; England abolishes, 
623. 

Slavery, among the Greeks, 193; 
in early Rome, 200; general state- 
ments respecting, 330 ; abolished 
in English colonies, 692 n. 2. 

Slaves, number in Middle Ages, 386 
n.3. 

Slavs, at opening of the Middle 
Ages, 335. See Russia. 

Smo-lensk', 673. 

Social War, 253; comments upon 
results, 254. 

Socrates, his trial and death, 146; 
his teachings, 182. 

Sog-di-a'na, 154. 

Soissons (swas'soh"), battle of, 338. 

Solferino (sol-fe-re'no), battle of, 
704. 

Solomon, k. of Hebrews, 50. 

So'lon, 108. 

Sol'y-man, the Magnificent, Sultan, 

5*3/ 

Sophists, the, 181. 

Sophocles, tragic poet, 175. 
So'to, Ferdinand de, 492 n. 4. 



Spain, conquest of, by Saracens, 
367 ; early history, 463-465 ; under 
Charles V, 511-516 ; under Philip 
II, 516-518; under Philip III, 
518; war with England, 536; war 
with Netherlands, 541-549; in 
the Napoleonic Era, 668. 

Spanish-American War, 740 n. 15. 

Spanish colonies, beginnings, 494. 

Spanish Fury, the, 545. 

Spanish March, 374. 

Spanish Succession, War of the, 
574; England's gains in, 617. 

Sparta, early history, 92-97. 

Spar'ta-cus, leader of gladiators, 259. 

Spartan supremacy (404-371 B.C.), 
145-148. 

Spenser, Edmund, 540. 

Sphac-te'ri-a, island, 139. 

Spinning jenny invented, 624. 

Spires, second diet of, 503. 

Spor'a-des, the, 74. 

Stanley, Henry M., 727. 

Star Chamber, court of, 583 n. 2. 

States-General, P'rench, 459 ; of 
1789, 632-635. 

Statute for the Burning of Heretics, 

457- 

Stein, Baron vom (stin), 671. 

Stephen of Blois (blwa), k. of Eng- 
land, 399 n. 3. 

Stil'i-cho, Vandal general, 307. 

Stirling, battle of, 450 n. 5. 

Stoessel (stes'sel), Russian general, 

745 n - l6 - 

Stoics, the, 185. 

Strafford (Thomas Wentworth), 
Earl of, 583, 585. 

Stral'sund, siege of, 558 n. 3. 

Strasburg (Ger. Strassburg; Fr. 
Strasbourg), seized by Louis XIV, 
572- 

Strassburg (stras'borG), oath of, 378. 

Streltsi, disbanded, 603. 

Stuart, House of, in England, 579- 
588, 595-600. 

Sty-li'tes, Simeon, 545. 

Sudan (soo-dan'), 736. 

Sulla, Lucius Cornelius, given com- 
mand against Mithradates, 256 ; 
his proscriptions, 257; made dic- 
tator, 258 ; his abdication and 
death, 258. 

Sully (sul'i), Duke of, 555. 



yj6 INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Sii'mer, 32. 

Su'ni-um, cape, 133. 

Siin'na, the, 366 n. 5. 

Siin'nites, Moslem sect, 368 n. 8. 

Supremacy, Act of, under Henry 
VIII, 526; under Elizabeth, 534. 

Surat (sod-rat'), English at, 581. 

Susa, taken by Alexander, 154. 

Sut-tee', 67 n. 3. 

Sweden, in Thirty Years' War, 558— 
560 ; gain in Peace of Westphalia, 
561; under Charles XII, 604; 
union with Norway, 6S0 it. i. 
See Calmar, Union of. 

Swiss Confederation, the, rise of, 
468 ; independent of Holy Roman 
Empire, 561 ; French intervention 
in, 655 ; as a federal state, 748. 

Swiss Guards, of Tuileries, 641, 642. 

Switzerland. See Swiss Confeder- 
ation. 

Sy-a'gri-us, 338. 

Syb'a-ris, founded, 100. 

Symposium, the, features of, 192. 

Syracuse, founded, 101 ; in the 
Peloponnesian War, 141, 142; 
fall of, 239. 

Syria, made a Roman province, 
158, 262. 

Tacitus, historian, 322. 

Talleyrand (tari-rand), 675. 

Tal'mud, 52. 

Tam-er-lane'. See Titmcr. 

Tancred (tang'kred), 409. 

Ta'o-ism, 69. 

Taras. See Tarentum. 

Tarentum, Greek colony, 100; war 

with Rome, 224. 
Tar-quin'i-us Priscus, k. of Rome, 

206. 
Tarquinius Superbus, k. of Rome, 

209. 
Tar'ta-rus, in Greek myth, 85. 
Tera-mon, battle at, 234. 
Te-lem'a-chus, monk, 308. 
Tell, William, legend of, 469. 
Tell-el-A-m'ar'n'a, cuneiform letters 

discovered at, 18 n. 3. 
Tem'pe, Vale of, 71. 
Templars, order of the, origin, 411. 
Ten Thousand, the, 145. 
Ter'ence, dramatist, 321. 
Terror, Reign of, 646-651. 



Test Act, repealed, 696. 

Tetzel, John, 498-500. 

Teutoburg Wood (toi'to-borg), 277. 

Teu'to-nes, 252. 

Teutonic Knights, order of the, 
origin, 411 ; in Baltic region, 416. 

Teutons, migrations, 305-316; king- 
doms established by, 336-340 ; 
their conversion, 341-344 ; fusion 
with the Latins, 353 ; personality 
of Teutonic laws, 354. 

Tha'les, 180. 

Thap'sus, battle of, 267. 

Theaters, Grecian, description of, 
165; entertainments of, 191; 
Roman, 319; entertainments of, 
326. 

Theban supremacy, 148. 

Thebes, in Egypt, 16. 

Thebes, in Greece, seized by the 
Spartans, 147 ; liberated by Pe- 
lopidas, 147; hegemony of, 148; 
destroyed by Alexander the Great, 
152. 

The-mis'to-cles, his naval policy, 
117; his agency in convening the 
Council of Corinth, 118; inter- 
prets the oracle of the "wooden 
walls," 121 ; his naval policy, 124; 
his ostracism and death, 124 n. 1. 

The-oc'ri-tus, poet, 179. 

The-od'o-ric, k. of the Ostrogoths, 

336. 
Theodosius I, the Great, Roman 

emp., 306, 307. 
Ther'mae, Roman, 320. 
Ther-mop'y-las, battle of, 120. 
Theseus (the'svis), k. of Athens, 78, 

106. 
Thes'sa-ly, description of, 71. 
The'tes, 108. 
Thiers (tyer), 687. 
Third Estate, the, beginnings of, 

in the towns, 437 ; French, under 

the Bourbons, 629. 
Thirty Tyrants, the, at Athens, 145. 
Thirty Years' Truce, the, 129. 
Thirty Years' War, the, 557~5 6 3- 
Thomas Becket, 456. 
Thor, German deity, 343. 
Thorvaldsen (tor'vald-zen), 642 n. 9. 
Thoth'mes III, 18. 
Thu-cyd'i-des, the historian, 177. 
Tiber, river, 198. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY JJJ 



Tiberine Republic of 1798, 655, 656. 
Tiberius, Roman emp., 281. 
Ti-ci'nus, battle of the, 236. 
Tiers Etat (tyar'za'ta" ; Eng. pron. 

terz'a-ta"). See Third Estate. 
Tigris, valley of the, 30. 
Tilly, 559. 

Tilsit, Treaty of, 667. 
Ti'mon, the misanthrope, 140. 
Timur (tl-moor'), Mongol conqueror, 

428. 
Ti'ryns, 72, 82 n. 3. 
Titian (tish an), 484. 
Titus, Roman emp., 285, 286. 
Tobacco, introduced into Europe, 

539- 

Todleben (tot'la-ben), 722. 

Toga, the, 3.26. 

To'go, Japanese admiral, 745. 

Tories, the party of conservatism, 
691. 

Toulon (too-loh'), 654. 

Tournament (tbbr'na-ment), the, 394. 

Tours (tobr), battle of, 367. 

Towns, mediaeval, 431-438. See 
Hanseatic League and Italian city- 
republics. 

Traf-al-gar', naval battle of, 665. 

Trajan, Roman emp., 287. 

Transmigration, Hindu doctrine of, 
66. 

Trans-Siberian Railway, 739. 

Transvaal, the, 732 ; becomes Trans- 
vaal Colony, 733. 

Tras-i-me'nus, Lake, battle at, 236. 

TreT>i-a, battle of the, 236. 

Trent, Church Council of, 505. 

Tribes, divisions of the Roman 
community, 201 ; the four Servian, 
208 ; maximum number, 208 n. 5. 

Tri-bo'ni-an, jurist, 324. 

Tribunes, military, with consular 
power, creation of office, 216; 
abolished, 219. 

Tribunes, plebeian, first, 211, 212; 
powers absorbed by Augustus, 

275- 
Triple Alliance, of 1668, 571; of 

1882, 717. 
Triumph, last, at Rome, 308. 
Triumvirate, First, 263 ; Second, 270. 
Trojan War, legend of, 80. 
Trou'ba-dours, the, 462. 
Trouveurs (trdb'ver"), the, 462. 



Troyes (trwa), Treaty of, 452 n. 7. 

Truceless War, the, 234. 

Tudor, House of, 520 n. 1. 

Tudor, Owen, 449. 

Tuileries (twe'le-riz), 642. 

Tunis, French protectorate, 735. 

Turanians. See Mongols and Turks. 

Turgot (tiir-gS'), 632. 

Turks, Ottoman, beginnings of their 

empire, 428 ; their conquests, 429 ; 

wars with Russia (1828-1829), 

720; (1853-1856), 721; (1877- 

1878), 722. 
Turks, Seljuk, 407 ; power broken, 

426. 
Twelve Tables, the, 214, 215. 
Tyne (tin), the, 289. 
Ty'phon, 23. 

Tyrants, the Greek Age of, 102-104. 
Tyre, history of, 55 ; siege of, by 

Alexander, 153. 

Uitlanders (oit'land-erz), 732. 

Ul'fi-las, apostle of the Goths, 341. 

Ulm (oblm), 664. 

Umbria, 195; union with Sardinia, 
705. 

Uniformity, Act of, under Edward 
VI, 531 ; under Elizabeth, 534. 

Union, The Interparliamentary, 749. 

United Provinces. See Netherlands. 

United States, independence of, 
622 ; expansion of, 739, 740. 

Universities, 439-441. See School- 
men. 

Unterwalden (don'ter-vaT'den), 469. 

Uri (oo'ri), 469. 

Utrecht (u'trekt), Union of, 546 ; 
Peace of, 575. 

Valens, Roman emp., 305 n. 1, 306. 

Val-en-tin'i-an I, Roman emp., 
305 n. 1. 

Valerio-Horatian laws, 216. 

Valla, Laurentius, 351 n. 7. 

Valladolid (val-ya-tho-leth'), 542. 

Valmy (val-me'), battle of, 643. 

Valois (val-wa/), House of, 460 ; his- 
tory of France under the mediaeval 
Valois sovereigns, 460-462 ; in the 
sixteenth century, 550 n. 1. 

Vandals, kingdom of the, in Spain, 
312; in Africa, 312; sack Rome, 
313 ; destroyed by Belisarius, 337. 



778 INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Vane, Sir Henry, 589 ; death, 595. 
Varro, Gaius Terentius, consul, 237. 
Varus, Quintilius, defeated by Ar- 

minius, 277. 
Vassy (va-se'), massacre of, 551. 
Vaudois (vo-dwa'), 514. 
Ve'das (or va'das), sacred books of 

the Hindus, 66. 
Veii (ve'yl), siege and capture, 217. 
Vendee (vori-da'), La, 644. 
Ve-ne'tia, ceded to Austria, 654 ; 

joined to Napoleon's kingdom of 

Italy, 664 ; becomes part of the 

new kingdom of Italy (1866), 

706. 
Venice, its beginnings, 313; takes 

part in Fourth Crusade, 413; 

sketch of history, 434. 
Ver-cel'lse, battle at, 253. 
Ver-duh', Treaty of, 377. 
Vergil, 278, 321. 
Ver'res, propraetor, 259, 277. 
Versailles (ver-salz'), palace of, 575. 
Vespasian (ves-pa'zhi-an), Flavius, 

Roman emp., 285. 
Vespucci, Amerigo (ves-poot'che, 

a-ma-re'go), 488. 
Vesta, worship of, at Rome, 204. 
Vl'a, Ap'pi-a, construction begun, 

223 ; Fla-min'i-a, construction of, 

. 2 33- 
Victor Emmanuel I, k. of Sardinia, 

700; II, k. of Italy, 705; III, 

706 n. 2. 
Vienna (vi-en'a), Congress of, 679- 

681. 
Villafranca (vel-la-frang'ka), Peace 

of, 704. 
Villain. See Serfs. 
Vin-do-bo'na, 291. 
Vinland, 380. 

Virginia, origin of name, 539. 
Visigoths, cross the Danube, 305 ; 

reduced to submission by. Theo- 

dosius, 306 ; invade Italy, 307 ; 

second invasion, 309 ; after sack 

of Rome, 311 ; establish kingdom 

in Spain, 311. 
Vi-tel'li-us, Roman emp., 285. 
Volscians, 212. 
Voltaire (vol-teV), 614, 630. 

Wagram (va'gram), battle of, 668. 
Wal-den'ses, 514. 



Wales, conquest of, 448. 

Wallace, Sir William, 450. 

Wallachia (wo-la'ki-a), 721, 723 n. 5. 

Wallenstein (wol'en-stln ; Ger. pron. 
val'len-stln), 558, 559, 560. 

Walpole, Sir Robert, 618. 

Walsingham, Sir Francis, 534. 

Warsaw, Grand Duchy of, formed, 
667 ; given to Russia, 680. 

Wartburg (yart'boorG), Luther at, 
502. 

Waterloo, battle of, 677. 

Watt, James, 624, 625. 

Wed'more, Treaty of, 381. 

Wellesley,- Sir Arthur. See Wel- 
lington. 

Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke 
of, in Portugal, 668; at Water- 
loo, 677. 

Wentworth, Thomas. See Straf- 
ford. 

Weser (va'zer), river, 561. 

Wesley, Charles, 619. 

Wesley, John, 619. 

Western Empire (Teutonic). See 
Charlemagne and Holy Roman 
. Empire. 

Westphalia, Peace of, 560 ; kingdom 
of, 667. 

Whigs, 691. 

Whitefield (hwit'feld), George, 619. 

Wilberforce, William, 623. 

William I, the Conqueror, k. of 
England, 397-399 ; II, the Red, 

399 n - 3 ! m > 59 s - 6o °- 
William I, the Silent, stadtholder, 

543-548 ; III, 597. 
William I, German emp., as k. of 

Prussia, 712; Emperor, 715-717; 

II, 717. 
Windmills, introduced into Europe 

by Crusades, 418. 
Win'frid, apostle of Germany, 344. 
Wink'el-ried, Arnold of, 469 n. 15. 
Wisby (wiz'M), 433. 
Wit'an, the, 397 ; becomes the Eng- 
lish Parliament, 400. 
Wit^e-na-ge-mot'. See Witan. 
Wo'den, German god, 343. 
Wolfe, James, 621. 
Wolsey, Cardinal, 523, 525. 
Woman, social position of, in Greece, 

190; at Rome, 326. 
Worcester (wus/ter), battle of, 590, 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 779 



Worms (vorms), Concordat of, 406; 
Diet of, 501. 

Writing, invention of, 7 ; Egyptian 
system, 21 ; Chinese, 67. 

Wiirtemberg (viirt'tem-berG), king- 
dom of, 665 ; in German Empire, 

715- 
Wycliffe (wik'lif), John, 457. 

Xan-thip'pe, 182 n. 5. 
Xavier (zav'i-er), Francis, 508. 
Xen'o-phon, 145, 177. 
Xeres (ha-res'), battle of, 367. 
Xerxes (zerks'ez) I, 62 ; invades 
Greece, 1 18-122. 

Yah-weh (yah-wa'), 52. 
Yezd, city, 366 n. 7. 



Yoke, symbol of submission, 2 14m 1. 
York, House of. See Roses, Wars 

of the. 
Yuste (yoos'ta), 515. 

Zaandam (zan-dam'), 603. 

Za'ma, battle at, 240. 

Zambesi (zam-be'ze), river, 734. 

Ze'la, battle at, 266. 

Zend-A-ves'ta, 63. 

Ze'no, the Stoic, 185. 

Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, 296. 

Zeus (zus), 86; oracles of, 87. 

Zeuxis (zuks'iss), Greek painter, 

171. 
Zorndorf (tsorn'dorf), battle of, 612. 
Zo-ro-as'ter, 63. 
Zwingli (zwing'le), Huldreich, 504. 



ANNOUNCEMENTS 



TEXT-BOOKS ON HISTORY 



L ist Mailing 
price J>rice 



Abbott's History and Description of Roman Political In- 
stitutions #1-5° 

Allen's Short History of the Roman People . .' . . . i.oo 
Channing and Hart's Guide to the Study of American 

History 2.00 

Cheyney's Short History of England 1.40 

Cooper, Estill, and Lemmon's History of Our Country . 1.00 

Droysen's Outline of the Principles of History .... 1. 00 

Emerton's Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages 1.12 

Emerton's Mediaeval Europe (814-1300) 1.50 

Feilden's Short Constitutional History of England . . . 1.25 

Gambrill's Leading Events of Maryland History ... .90 

Getchell's Mediaeval History by Library Method ... .50 

Kemp's History for Graded and District Schools . . . 1.00 

Lawler's Essentials of American History 1.00 

Mace's Method in History 1.00 

Montgomery's Beginner's American History 60 

Montgomery's Leading Facts of American History . . . 1.00 

Montgomery's Leading Facts of English History . . . 1.12 

Montgomery's Leading Facts of French History . . . 1.12 
Montgomery's Student's American History. (Revised 

Edition) 1.40 

Myers' General History 1.50 

Myers' Ancient History. (Revised Edition) 1.50 

Myers' Eastern Nations and Greece. (Revised Edition) . 1.00 

Myers' History of Rome. (Revised Edition) 1.00 

Myers' History of Greece 1.25 

Myers' Mediaeval and Modern History. (Revised Edition) 1.50 

Myers' The Middle Ages 1.10 

Myers' The Modern Age 1.25 

Myers' Rome: Its Rise and Fall 1.25 

Myers and Allen's Ancient History 1.50 

Robinson's Introduction to the History of Western Europe 1.60 

Volume I ' 1 .00 

Volume II 1.00 

Robinson's Readings in European History. Volume I . 1.50 

Riggs' Studies in United States History 60 

Webster's History of Commerce 1.40 



GINN & COMPANY Publishers 



TEXT-BOOKS ON HISTORY 

FOR HIGHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 

By D. H. MONTGOMERY 

Author of the " Leading Facts of History Series " 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY. (Revised Edition.) A text 
book for high schools and colleges. i2mo. Cloth. 612 + lvii pages. With 
maps and illustrations. List price, $1. 40; mailing price, $1.60. 

THE LEADING FACTS OF ENGLISH HISTORY. i2mo. Cloth. 420 + 
Ixxix pages. Illustrated. List price, $1.12 ; mailing price, $1.25. 

THE LEADING FACTS OF FRENCH HISTORY. i 2 mo. Cloth. 328 + 
xxvii pages. Illustrated. List price, $1.12; mailing price, #1.25. 






IN the " Student's American History" the attractive and endur- 
ing qualities of Mr. Montgomery's other histories are found 
in an even higher degree. It follows the same general lines 
as the "Leading Facts of American History." It differs, however, 
from that manual in several important respects. It is much fuller 
in its treatment of political and constitutional history and of all 
the chief events in the nation's development. In this thorough 
revision particular attention has been given to the leading political 
features, to questions of constitutional history, and to the opening 
and settlement of the West and its influence on the development 
of the nation. 

- In Montgomery's " English History " the important events of 
that country are treated with great fullness, and their relation to 
that of Europe and the world is carefully shown. 

No pains has been spared to make the execution of the work 
equal to its plan. Vivid touches here and there betray the author's 
mastery of details. 

The object of Montgomery's " French History " is to present, 
within a moderate compass, the most important events of the his- 
tory of France, selected, arranged, and treated according to the 
soundest principles of historical study and set forth in a clear and 
attractive narrative. 



GINN & COMPANY Publishers 

H 89 



831 










































^fc- 



■ - ■ 


















'• ■* 





















- 



% • 






■:. ■ 
























@ 



JAN 83 

N IWHriB'ilUI 



i 
i 



